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WORKS OF ELLEN H. RICHARDS 

PUBLISHED BY 

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The Cost of Living: as Modified by Sanitary Science. 

By Ellen H. Richards. Instructor in Sanitary 
Chemistry in the Massachusetts Institute of Tech- 
nology. i2mo. 124 pages. Cloth. $1.00. 

Air, Water, and Food ; From a Sanitary Standpoint. 

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The Cost of Food : A Study in Dietaries. 

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The Chemistry of Cooking and Cleaning. 

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Cloth. 158 pages. Price $1.00. 

Food Materials and their Adulterations. 

By Ellen H. Richards. Cloth. 183 pages. Pric* 

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Revised Edition. Edited by Ellen H. Richards 
and Marion Talbot. Paper. 85 pages. Price 25c 
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Edited by Ellen H. Richards. The Rumford Leaf- 
lets. Illustrated. Cloth. 176 pages. Price $1.00. 



THE COST OF FOOD: 



A STUDY IN DIETARIES. 



BY/' 

ELLEN H. RICHARDS, 

Instructor in Sanitary Chemistry, 
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 



FIRST EDITION. 
FIRST THOUSAND. 



• • 



- . . . 



NEW YORK : 

JOHN WILEY & SONS. 

London: CHAPMAN & HALL, Limited. 

1901. 

I- 



\ 



THE t OF 

OCT 23 1901 

.^ < - - .' 



S H RICH ' 



"i! 1 , P«INTK«, ^K™ 1 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER IA(iK 

I. Food a Necessity Knowledge of Food-values a 
Present day Necessity— Kind, Quality, and Cost 

of Food i 

II. Food for tin- Infant 15 

III. Food for the School-child 20 

IV. Food for the Active Youth 37 

V. Food for the Youth at College and for the Biain- 

worker 45 

VI, Food for the Traveller and Professional Person 52 

VII. Food for those in Penal and Pauper Institutions.... 60 

VIM. Food for the Person in a Hospital 70 

IX. Food for Middle Life anil for Old Age 84 

X. General Principles governing Dietaries go 

XI. Dietaries costing Ten to Fifteen Cents per Day per 

For sou () 8 

XII. Twenty-five Cents per Day per Person 11 1 

XIII. Forty to Fifty Cents per Day per Person 134 

X I V. Sixty Cents per I )a v per Person 138 

XV. The Dietary Computer 1 43 

Glossary ok Terms Used i^i 

Bibliography, selected 155 

Index i 5 u 

v 



THE COST OF FOOD 



FOOD A NECESSITY. KNOWLEDGE OF FOOD- 
VALUES A PRESENT-DAY NECESSITY 

"The physiological principle of the preparation of food is 
summed up in the postulate that it shall produce the highest 
efficiency in the individual and the race." — Thudichum. 

The food-supply is the controlling factor in all life, 
vegetable, animal, or human. In proportion as suit- 
able food is abundant, so thrives the living thing be- 
cause of the ease with which it satisfies its appetite. 
In the case of human food this ease is expressed in 
terms of money. Abundance means comparatively 
little cost of any article, so that it may be easily ob- 
tained by numbers of people. Therefore in presence 
of abundant food-supply prosperous communities are 
found. The plant must grow at the spot indicated 
by the presence of its food. The animal may range 
forest and plain in search of it. Early man did the 
same, and peoples grew strong where space for pas- 



2 THE COST OF FOOD 

turage or fertility of soil gave opportunity for herds 
and crops. 

Nineteenth-century man, by his development of 
means of quick transportation of foodstuffs from 
all quarters of the globe to any desired spot, has 
changed, the problem so entirely that the small cost 
of any food material no longer depends upon its 
production in situ by the community which is to con- 
sume it, but only upon its transportable character. 

Wheat flour is cheap simply because it can be pre- 
pared in quantity on the spot where it is grown, and 
kept in storage or carried around the world without 
appreciable deterioration. Fresh fruits are dear be- 
cause they will not endure this handling and storage. 
They must be desiccated or preserved. This reason 
for cost is so often overlooked that it is worth while 
to emphasize it at the outset. The errors in buying 
food-supplies have their root in the mistaken notion 
that whatever is obtained at small relative expense 
is common and unclean; that the use of such food 
is a mark of plebeian tastes and leads to very low 
mental development. As a matter of fact the cost 
of food is no measure of its nutritive value. 
" Cheap " food is that which has required little cap- v 
ital or labor to produce. 

Formerly each race adapted itself to its environ- 
ment and trained its digestion in accordance with 
the available diet. In great measure the races of 



FOOD A NECESSITY 3 

earlier ages were modified by the possibilities of food 
in the lands to which they migrated. The influence 
of food upon character has yet to be adequately 
studied and discussed. 

In America to-day, the situation which confronts 
us, whether working man, student, or millionaire, 
is not how to get food enough, but how to choose 
from the bewildering variety offered that which will 
best develop the powers of the human being and 
make him efficient, and, what is of greater impor- 
tance, how to avoid that tempting variety, indulgence 
in which weakens the moral fibre and lessens mental 
as well as physical efficiency. So long as it is the 
popular belief that brilliancy of mind or position is 
chiefly due to luxurious food, served with the dis- 
guises of the chef's art, so long will the aspiring poli- 
tician and novel-writer change from one boarding- 
house to another in search of variety, and children 
will continue to demand the luxuries of the table un- 
rebuked. 

In spite of all preaching, few really believe that 
plain living goes with high thinking. Most, either 
consciously or unconsciously, attribute American 
versatility and success to the richness and variety of 
food so easily obtained. Neither moralist nor sani- 
tarian has begun to ask whether the increase of 
crime, of insanity, of certain forms of disease, of 
moral recklessness, is rot attributable to the debili- 



4 THE COST OF FOOD 

taring effects of the food set before us, to the lower- 
ing of ideals of living so well exemplified in the details 
of the fashionable table. 

In the case of plants, the importance of nutrition 
to the organism has long been recognized. The 
gardener produces leaf or blossom at will, and even 
changes color and form, by the substances he fur- 
nishes to the growing plant. 

The American farmer and wage-earner thinks he 
has made a great advance when he can say, " We keep 
help now and my wife and daughter can sit in rock- 
ing-chairs and read novels," but with the leisure and 
lack of interesting occupations comes the habit of 
nibbling sweets with the novels, the perverted taste 
in food as well as literature. The girls have more food 
and less work than is good for them, with the logical 
biological result that grandchildren fail. It is not 
over-education but over-nutrition which threatens 
race extinction. To quote Prof. Patten :* " Formerly 
the underfed failed to survive; now it is the overfed 
among whom the elimination is taking place. The 
ideal of health is to obtain complete nutrition. Over- 
nutrition, as well as under-nutrition, weakens the 
body and subjects it to evils that make it incapable 
of survival. The plethora of food now enjoyed in- 
duces men to eat and drink more than their systems 
can stand. . . . Must we look among women for the 

* " Development of English Thought," pp. 379-387. 



FOOD A NECESSITY 5 

best examples of over-feeding? ... It is said that 
all female animals become barren when overfed. . . . 
Cheap food and a sugar diet, therefore, make the 
conditions out of which the thought movement of 
the present epoch will proceed." 

Alan has a wide range of activities, and because he 
does not see the separate result of any one, he is 
not sensitive to its effect. Man, also, has great 
adaptability, and abuses it by too sudden changes. 
Desire for food is one of the fundamental race in- 
stincts, and in pre-scientific days was supposed to 
take care of itself under all circumstances. Even 
now it is usually assumed to be a safe guide in food if 
not in drink. A distinguished physician has recently 
said : * 

" This splendid instinct — appetite — so necessary 
for our existence — especially in early times — has 
now more than ever to meet with sudden modifica- 
tions resulting from the complexity of modern life. 
While primarily responsible for the discovery of in- 
numerable aliments, the very abundance in this gen- 
eration, both in quantity and variety, is embarrassing, 
and we find the results of unnecessary and artificial 
stimulation in the unnatural desires for food. The 
lack of attention as to the appropriateness of food 
subjects not only the digestive apparatus but all the 
cells of the individual organism to distress and not 

* Dr. Charles G. Stockton. " Hygiene." 



6 THE COST OF FOOD 

infrequently to disease. In this matter the problem 
to be solved is, first, how to train the appetite into 
natural and wholesome paths, and, second, how to 
live so that by means of proper physical, mental, and 
moral activity there may be successfully oxidized 
the kind and quantity of nutriment required in nor- 
mal life, and that there may be successfully discharged 
the waste products that result from the oxida- 
tion. . . . 

" It is unsafe to trust the individual to the guid- 
ance of the appetite alone, for the reason that this 
instinct was built up for a condition of existence 
very different from that which enables the people of 
this country to indulge themselves to-day." 

It is also true that appetite can be educated, di- 
rected, like any other habit, but it is still a common 
superstition that likings for food are inborn traits. 

It seems to be most difficult to inculcate the prin- 
ciples of right living in the face of this superstition, 
especially in the face of the intense individualization 
so widely taught — namely, that each person is a law 
unto himself. Respect for natural laws, obedience 
to the fixed principles which govern all living or- 
ganisms in order that freedom of activity may result, 
is most unwelcome teaching. The bearing of this 
attitude upon habits of life and cost of living is very 
evident. Every effort to inculcate saner ideals is 
met with scoffing, with unproven assertions, and 



FOOJ) A NEi ESSITY 7 

with a demand for freedom and unrestrained choice 
as a mark of American liberty. Men have vet to 
learn that " independence cannot with safety be 
made to apply to their relations with nature." 

Scientific sociology must take account of these be- 
liefs and tendencies and inaugurate a series of studies 
of existing conditions and a controlling series of ex- 
periments before any definite conclusion can be 
reached. The following suggestions are given for 
the purpose of indicating lines in which such studies 
and experiments are desirable. 

It is freely acknowledged that many of the state- 
ments have no basis of mathematical proof — only a 
foundation in observation of years and of a some- 
what wide range of conditions. If they can be scien- 
tifically refuted, well and good. But, if they are 
true, thoughtful young men and women will do well 
to take heed to their ways before it is too late. 
Cost of food is a result of several factors. 

Seed — a bushel of potatoes or corn withdrawn 

from consumption; 
Rent for ground to grow the plant or graze 

the animal;" 
Fertilizer to renew the productive power of 

the soil; 
Labor to plough, plant, cultivate, gather; or 

to feed, water, and keep clean the animal; 
Machinery — utensils, wear, and tear ; 



8 THE COST OF ROOD 

Interest on capital invested — building and 

Plant. 
Waste due to rainy or dry seasons, to disease 

of both plant and animal; 
Preparation for market; mismanagement of 

raiser, packer, transporter, distributer; 
Inevitable loss in dressing for the table, un- 
eatable parts; 
Indigestible portions, natural or produced by 

cooking, which must yet be paid for; 
Preparation for the table; cost in labor and 
time, and waste in digestion, natural and 
due to wrong choice. 
If once the public can disabuse its mind oi any 
idea of close connection between " food value " and 
cost — namely, that a cheap food is a poor food, 
that a dear food is a good food — then a beginning 
in scientific dietaries can be made. The cost of a food 
depends upon how man)- of these factors enter into 
its history before it is placed on the table. 

Pudding costs more than oat-meal mush because 
of the greater length of time required in preparation ; 
because skilled labor is necessary for the preparation 
and transportation of the ingredients. 

The excessive cost of board to-day is due to many 
other thinsrs besides the cost of raw materials. When 
a man pays $10 a week for " table-board " he pays 
for fragile china, neat aprons and caps for the maid. 



FOOD A NECESSITY (J 

time oi* the cook in garnishing-, choice of dishes, etc., 
etc., so that the raw material he consumes forms 
barely one-third the total cost. 

The cost of food is not only its money cost, it is 
the cost to the body to appropriate it which must be 
considered. 

Man is an adaptable animal, but he often abuses 
his power by asking- for its use too often and by 
making too sudden changes. He can live on the 
most diverse kinds of food as he can drink the softest 
or the hardest water, if he has been brought up to 
it, but sudden changes arc apt to be disastrous. 

A man treats his stomach as if it were a thing 
apart from himself — an inanimate machine and a 
very simple one at that, not likely to get out of re- 
pair. Engineers know how to get the best work 
out of their engines, and they have learned that it 
pays to take care of the machine. Man's digestive 
apparatus is more delicate and complicated than any 
machine, and yet he treats it with indifference, neg- 
lect, and even contempt. He runs it without trying 
to understand it, and blames everything but himself 
if it gives out. In pioneer days circumstances were 
the stern teachers of wisdom, but now temptations 
to indulgence are on every street-corner and at 
every family table. Men go on as if they were made 
of cast iron, as if by mere will power they could make 
poisons into food. 



IO THE COST OF FOOD 

To a watcher of events it is maddening to see the 
crowd rushing on to destruction, not seeing the 
precipice and not believing any warnings, attributing 
the disappearance of friend after friend to any but 
the right cause. 

When a man drops dead in the street his friends 
say. Oh, he has been living at high pressure ; he 
has had many business cares; he has tried to do too 
much : he inherited that tendency. They never 
say. lie was so careless or foolish or foolhardy in 
his eating. The family physician does not dare to 
prescribe diet, he knows it is a too unwelcome sub- 
ject; he can only send the man away from part of 
the temptation on a sea-voyage. 

There are none so blind as those who wilfully shut 
their eyes, and in all food matters we are wilfully 
blind. The day of reckoning will come, however. 

In the interest of the race, of its mental as well as 
physical development, there is no subject which 
should occupy the attention of educators comparable 
with that of food and its influence on human prog- 
ress. 

If, as in some other things, there were an alterna- 
tive, it would not so much matter, but nature has not 
provided a substitute for food. Nothing can take 
its place. It is a condition of life, and right food is 
an essential of efficient living. 

This being an indisputable fact, it seems strange 



FOOD A NECESSITY I I 

that all discussion of it is tabooed in educational cir- 
cles; and still more strange is it that teachers, of all 
persons, are the most careless and reckless in mat- 
ters of diet. The very people who would profit most 
by right habits of living seem most oblivious of the 
fundamental principles. 

It is therefore hopeless to expect to impress the 
pupils through the teachers, hence outside influence 
must be brought to bear on both. Naturally it 
should come through the parents, the mother chiefly, 
while the children are young, but the father who 
mingles with his fellows and sees more of life should 
watch for his share in the general training along 
progressive lines. 

It has become too much the fashion to allow 
children a greater range of electives in food than in 
studies, to set before them a bewildering variety 
and applaud rather than disapprove a whimsical 
choice. 

So much has been done in the way of popularizing 
knowledge that persons are not willing to do any 
thinking for themselves. If a new word appears in 
the daily paper, it must be explained by a synonym 
of easy comprehension. If a scientific fact is an- 
nounced, it must be couched in terms of every-day 
currency. 

Mental laziness has come to be a distinct charac- 
teristic of the mass of the people who have been 



12 THE COST OF FOOD 

taught facts or supposed facts without having had to 
think for themselves. Hence it happens that when 
the subject oi food is broached and such terms as 
proteid, carbohydrates, and metabolism are used, a 
repellent, rebellious mood is felt sweeping over the 
audience. Indeed, it is often voiced in the request 
to tise everv-day language, to tell in plain terms what 
these things are. 

This is often impossible; at least it would mean oc- 
cupying time and space in definition so that none 
would be left for discussion. In the glossary, pages 
151— 4, will be found a vocabulary for the benefit of 
those who are willing to take the trouble to learn it. 

These few chapters do not form a compendium of 
knowledge. A wide acquaintance with generally ac- 
cepted 'facts and a certain groundwork of the funda- 
mental sciences, such as chemistry, physics, and 
physiology, is assumed to be the preparation of the 
student. If bacteriology, physiological chemistry, 
and theoretical chemistry are also in a measure in 
his possession, so much the better. Xo attempt is 
made to give a popular treatise upon a subject re- 
quiring so much concentration of attention and 
systematic study. Only a small section of a very 
large field is prepared for the seed which will be 
dropped into it from time to time from current scien- 
tific periodicals and reports. Some of the seeds will 
prove to be weeds, and will be pulled up and thrown 



FOOD A NECESSITY 13 

away, but the ground will be kept in condition to 
grow the good grain as fast as it is found. 

The scientific attitude of mind, namely, to suspend 
judgment while the little plant of knowledge is grow- 
ing, is important. Neither accept nor throw away 
an idea until it has proved itself a weed or a good food 
for further growth. The science of nutrition is still 
in its infancy. 

A study of food may be divided into three chief 
fines: 

1st. Food substances or stuffs and their office in 
the body; 

2d. Food materials in which the foodstuffs occur; 

3d. The relative cost of the right amount of the 
foodstuffs when derived from the various food ma- 
terials. 

The aim of the present study is the 3d, which is, 
however, influenced not only by the kind of food, but 
by the preparation and combination to which it is 
subjected outside the body, and by the mental and 
physical condition of the body receiving the pre- 
pared food. Some future writer will be able to com- 
bine results of these three studies into a handbook 
which may be followed. Neither the cook nor the 
public is yet ready for this. 

If ' food is that which builds up the body and 
furnishes energy for its activities," or if " food is 
that sum of foreign substances which taken within 



14 THE COST OF FOOD 

the organism enables it to grow and perfect seed 
in the plant, to grow and manifest activity in the 
animal, to grow, to manifest activity, and to think 
thoughts new and old in man," it behooves ns to 
learn something about these substances which the 
organism uses. Among other sources of informa- 
tion the reader will find the data he needs in Bulletin 
No. 28, U. S. Department Agriculture, and in " Food 
and Diet " by Hutchison. The bibliography on page 
155 furnishes other titles. 

These sources have been available only in recent 
years, so that it is not strange that middle-aged 
housewives are not familiar with the technical terms 
used. 

The younger women, however, should see to it that 
even the arithmetic oi dietaries becomes full of mean- 
ing, and that a respect for the value of properly 
selected and prepared food should be inculcated with 
the children's other lessons. 



II 



FOOD FOR THE INFANT 

" A legal enactment in France prohibits the giving of any form 
of solid food to infants under one year of age without the au- 
thority of a prescription from a qualified medical man." — Hogan. 

One way to determine what substances are food 
for mankind is to find out the composition of the 
natural foods. For instance, of milk, which is the 
universal food of the young mammal. This will pre- 
pare the way for the study of the food of other 
animals, both young and adult. 

TABLE I 



HUMAN MILK. Water 

per cent. 
200 Analyses 

Minimum 

Maximum 

Average 

cow's MILK, 
800 Analyses. 

Minimum I 80. 32 

Maximum 90.69 

Average 87.17 



81.09 
91.40 

87.41 



Nitrogenous 

Substances, 

per cent. 



.69 
4.70 
2.29 



2.07 
6.40 

3-55 



Fat, 
per cent. 



1-43 
6.83 

3.78 



r .67 
6.47 
3.69 



Sugar, 
per cent, 



3-88 

8-34 
6.21 



2. II 
6. 12 

4.88 



Mineral 

Salts, 
per cent. 



. 12 

I.90 

•31 



•35 
I. 21 

•71 



We find milk to consist of 87 per cent water, that 
is, the substances which make up the other 13 per 
cent are diluted and are not in a concentrated form. 
We find four classes of substances: 



15 



16 I IN' COST OV FOOD 

ist. Nitrogenous, or albumen, casein, etc.; 

2(1. Fats — " butter-fats," composed of many kinds 
of fattv acids and glycerine, some soluble and vola- 
tile, others not — the so-called fixed fatty acids; 

y\. Sugar — milk-sugar, one of the many sugars 
known in nature; 

4th. Mineral salts, such as calcium phosphate 
and sodium and potassium chlorides and certain 
gaseous elements. 

The first and fourth classes exist for the most part 
in combination with each other: the second in sus- 
pension — a so-called emulsion ; the third probably in 
simple solution. 

Since the young animal can live, and grow well to- 
ward maturity on milk alone, it is evident that, with 
the exception of air, here are all the elements of 
animal nutrition. If we examine any animal organism 
— fish, worm, insect, or the human body, we find the 
same substances, and none which cannot come under 
these general heads. Therefore we may assume that 
the thousand materials used as food must contain 
these same substances in varying proportion. 

The tables of food composition are therefore 
made out in terms of these classes. Four words to 
learn the meaning of, and yet hundreds of intelligent 
persons turn away from any book on food where 
these words meet the eye! Truly we are a laz)/ 
people when it comes to intelligent effort. 



FOOD FOR THE INFANT \J 

To make it as easy as possible, we will begin with 
the food of the infant. At birth the child weighs, on 
the average, 6.5 lbs. (girl), 7.3 (boy). Its first effort 
is to breathe in the air that gives the needful oxygen 
for the transformation of the food it next cries for. 
Upon this food (of which it takes one-seventh its 
weight daily) and inhaled air it gains an ounce a day 
in weight and finds energy for constant activity. As 
activity increases the gain in weight lessens, and one 
half ounce per day is a fair average. At the end of 
the first year thirteen or more pounds have been 
added. At maturity the muscle increase has been 
50-fold, that of the skeleton 25-fold, that of the total 
body weight 18-fold. The composition of the body 
now, compared with that at birth, is: 

RELATIVE BODY COMPOSITION 

At Birth. Grown Man. 

Skeleton 16 16 

Muscles 23 42 

Fatty tissue 14 10 

Other tissue 31 47 

During this first year, the child has taken some- 
thing like 500 quarts (1,000 lbs.) of milk containing 
40 lbs. proteid, 40 lbs. fat, and 50 lbs. sugar, or 130 
lbs. of food, to give 13 lbs. in weight. This gives a 
little idea of the office of food in the body; of how 
much is used up in mere living, in motion, and how 
little goes to body tissue. This increase of actual 
substance is still further cut down by the fact that 
part of this weight is water, although not so great a 



1 8 THE COST OF FOOD 

proportion as is the case in later life, when bones 
and brain have practically ceased growing. 

There is little to add on the food of the infant, 
save that it is safest to 'keep to the natural diet for 
the first year as closely as possible. 

As the child grows, substitutes are found in other 
foods. Starch replaces part of the sugar; meat 
tissue, part of the casein; vegetable oils and animal 
fats, part of the milk-fat; while the mineral salts are 
found in all materials. 

In the second year some solid food is added, but 
the same relative composition must be kept. That 
is, the solid food must not be all proteid or all starch 
or all sugar. The proteid from animal sources may be 
given in the form of eggs, yolk preferred, chicken, 
fish, a very little mutton, and from vegetable sources 
in oat-meal and whole-wheat, or in some of the patent 
preparations which are what they seem, and in lentil 
or pea flour used for thickening broths. The starchy 
food may be of rice, potatoes, macaroni, the cereals 
carefully chosen, and rusks, pulled bread, or Zwie- 
back. 

Sugar is now almost universally advocated as food 
for young children, not as amusement between meals, 
but as part of the dietary and counted as such. A 
pound of candy yields as many heat-units or calories 
as a child of fourteen needs in its whole day. If, 
however, the child satisfies its appetite with this 



FOOD FOR THE INFANT 



19 



candy, it defrauds its body of the " building " ma- 
terial which the candy totally lacks, and of the fat 
which seems equally necessary. (See Hutchison, 
" Butter vs. Jam.") Of the 10 oz. of carbohydrate 
which a child of fourteen requires, perhaps 4 oz. 
may be in the form of sugar. This is the quantity 
of milk-sugar which a child of three or four years 
would absorb if its diet were of milk exclusively. 
Cane-sugar is, however, more disturbing to the di- 
gestion and should, therefore, not be held as innocu- 
ous as milk-sugar. 

This allowable amount of 3 or 4 oz. should, how- 
ever, form part of regular meals or of a definite 
luncheon, as will be indicated in the discussion of the 
school luncheon. 

The following table, compiled by Uffelman, will 
indicate the slow variation required in the child's 
food: 

TABLE II* 



Age. 

1 1/2 years.. . 

2 years 

3 years , 

4 years 

5 years 

8 to 9 years. . 
12 to 13 years 
14 to 15 years. 



Proteid, 
Grams. 



425 

45-5 

5o 

53 

56 
60 
72 
79 



Fat, 
Grams. 



35 

36 

38 

41.5 

43 

44 

47 

48 



Carbohy- 
drates, 
Grams. 



IOO 
IIO 
I20 
135 
145 
150 
245 
270 



Calories. 



909.7 
972.4 
1050.4 
II56.8 
1224.O 
1270.O 
1736.8 
1877-3 



* Hutchison, p. 453. Schroeder, Archiv. fur Hygiene, IV, 
39, 1886. 



2 



mi-: lost i'F toon 



In the child's lie! there is 1 part of proteid to 4.5 
of fat and carbohydrate. In thai of the adult the 

ratio is I to 5.5 par: - 

[11 the chi - liet there is 1 part of tat to 5.7 c 
Irate. In that of the It 1 10 1 irts, 
le child is move active in proportion to his 
ght than the adult, an Is a larger 

proportion of 5 in - His body als< 

5 neai 3 s rtion 

to his g I re loses more 1:. 1 ad- 

ditional reason for more ing food. 



TABLE III 
A 6B1 

,/ VV*ei§ - 

Kilos - >ais. G 

4 13.3 10" 44 ■ S 

Boy, 6 t8.o _;i 1 

. • • • ■ c 1 .3 

0-14 78.C 






« 



Carbohj - 

I - - 

28l Q 



As an illustration may be taken the food of 
of four or six. 

The fo'.'.o g list (Table VT - uldfurais 
enough, since great care must be taken to form 
habits of eating • tl at condiments or 

stimulants ir that full bo lily and mental de- 

velo] e. Less \ 



FOOD FOR THE INFANT 2\ 

by a well-trained child than by an adult. An indis 
cretion in diet in these formative years may result 
in atrophy oi some cells, wrong tendencies in others, 

and permanent nerve displacements, just as a pin- 
prick in the undeveloped bud will leave a scar which 
shows during the life of the tree. The child has nol 
the reserve store oi the adult and cannot go with- 
out food safely for any considerable time. The 
digestive organs are excessively delicate, easily irri- 
tated; therefore hard, coarse, dry foods are pro- 
hibited; also spices, condiments, and all nerve-irri- 
tants. 

It is also true that a taste for highly spiced food, 
for sweets, etc.. may be fixed by a very little unwise 
indulgence, especially since habit rather than instinct 
guides civilized man in the choice of food. It is the 
first taste that costs: no sane mother would give her 
child coffee or wine; why should she yield to its curi- 
osity and give spiced foods and rich gravies? If the 
child is not taught to be whimsical and fickle in ap- 
petite, he will rarely make any remarks about his 
food. Alas, he usually hears too much for and against 
food, and as the parrot's vocabulary betrays his ship 
companions, so the child's fancies betray His parents 
and nurse. 

It is, on all accounts, best to adhere to a simple, 
well cooked, nutritious diet until the child is fifteen 
or sixteen; then the digestive organs will have 



22 THE COST OF FOOD 

gained their full strength, and for the next twenty 
years may be trusted with anything in reason. 

As has been said, milk is the universal food of the 
young mammal, furnishing that which is needed for 
growth and repair, for muscle, bone, and tissue, and 
also, in its sugar, the heat form of energy used in 
keeping the body warm and active. 

The voting chick in the egg finds as its food that 
which is needed for all but activity. Since its op- 
portunity for motion is very slight, it simply grows, 
develops, makes blood and bone and muscle, so that 
the chick steps forth from its shell a perfect animal 
strong enough to stand, with wit enough to eat, but 
requiring at once corn-meal to furnish the starch 
for the activity which the young mammal derives 
from the sugar in the milk. 

Since the egg is so nearly a complete food, and 
so easily transformed into animal tissues, it is well 
to study its composition and to compare it with milk, 
meat, and fish: 

TABLE IV 

Water, Nitrog. Fat, Food Value 

Foodstu'. percent. Substances percent, per lb. in Cal. 

per cent. 

Whole egg, without shell 73.7 12.5 12. 1 742 

Yolk of egg 51-0 16. 1 31.4 (Konig) 1623 

White " 85.5 12.9 .25 250 

Young chicken, broiler . . 43.7 12.8 1.4 295 

Fowl 47-1 J 3-7 I2 -3 "75 

Beef, round, lean 40.9 19.5 7-3 °70 

Dressed halibut 61.9 15.3 4-4 470 

salmon 48.1 13-8 8.1 600 



FOOD FOR THE INFANT 23 

The growing chick, before activity begins, needs 
74% water, 12% N., 10% fat, and in addition 1% 
mineral salts. One egg-shell equals 40 grams. It is 
possible that part of this is used as needed. Oxygen 
for the metabolism of the egg contents must come in 
through the shell. It is clear that the egg contents 
are not sufficient for the activity of the chick, since 
its appetite at once develops for cornmeal as well 
as for grubs; neither are they dilute enough to fur- 
nish water for evaporation and for that general tissue 
exchange which motion of body increases. Water, 
being the heat regulator of the body, is constantly 
being lost and hence must be supplied in the food 
in greater amount than is needed for mere exist- 
ence. We learn, then, that eggs are not sufficient 
in themselves for the active child. They contain too 
little water, too much nitrogen, but we also learn 
that they must contain the right proportion for 
body building, and therefore are a valuable food, es- 
pecially when there is a demand for just this kind 
of sustenance, as after fever; in cases of nerve ex- 
haustion, as well as for growing children. As in 
milk, the substances found in eggs do not exist by 
themselves, but in combination one with another or 
several in a more or less loose connection. Thus the 
sulphur and phosphorus seem to be in close asso- 
ciation with the fat in the form of lecithin. It is 
barely possible that this group may be utilized with 



24 THE COST OF FOOD 

less expenditure of energy than some other forms of 
matter for nerve building and nutrition ; only a 
limited amount can be assimilated in a given time, 
therefore it is not to be supposed that a diet of eggs 
can be used to force brain development, certainly not 
beyond a very small limit. 

The foods nearest in composition to eggs are the 
various meats and fish, as is to be expected from the 
fact that flesh is formed in the egg from its contents. 
Meats, however, differ in that they contain the prod- 
ucts of the decomposition due to muscular activity, 
to breaking down of tissue, such as urea, and thev 
also are more or less rich in the tough collagen or 
connective tissue which holds the bundles of cells in 
place and serves as ropes or straps to join muscle to 
the framework of bone. The fat of muscle, both in- 
terstitial and enveloping, lacks the high mineral con- 
tent of the egg-fat combination, the latter occurring 
onlv in marrow and brain to any degree, so that fat of 
meat is not a perfect substitute for fat of egg. 

The various cuts of meat differ largely in regard 
to the amount of fat. both interstitial and envelop- 
ing. 

Fish, as a rule, has less fat, and in products of de- 
composition ranges with white meats, such as breast 
of chicken, and veal. 

It is evident that lean meat does not furnish suffi- 
cient heat-units for normal human life, that very fat 



FOOD FOR THE INFANT 25 

meat must be eaten to bring up the calories. It is 
well known that the child, as a rule, has a distaste for 
fat, therefore a leaf may be taken from the diet-book 
of the chick and starchy foods be added as soon as 
milk ceases to be the sole food. This must not be 
done until the child's digestive jnices are able to 
transform starch into an assimilable sugar, which is 
at about the ninth month. Even then a limited 
amount only is given until the second year. 

Since the mucous membrane of the child is of a 
most delicate and easily irritated texture, it is un- 
wise to give acids or foods which produce acids on 
decomposition, or to give food which has woody 
fibre or any indigestible substance until greater vigor 
of digestion appears. Therefore the oatmeal is bet- 
ter strained, " oatmeal jelly," and the wheat and bar- 
ley pearled. If abundance of milk and eggs are given, 
white bread and rice may serve, but where the cost 
of the former is too great, the necessary mineral salts 
must come from whole wheat, oatmeal, peameal 
soup, strained. 

It is unsafe to use any cereal food which happens 
to be put upon the market with the idea that all 
cereals are alike digestible. Experiments on chil- 
dren are costly. 

The reader is advised to study the diet of the infant 
and young child as to quantity and quality, to be- 
come perfectly familiar with the composition of these 



26 THE COST OF FOOD 

twenty foods, Table VI, and with the combination of 
them into suitable mentis. 

The child's food still contains much water, that in 
the form of ripe fruits, soups, and milk is better than 
too much from the city tap — but if bread and butter 
is the staple, then much water should be allowed. It 
will be easy to make up a day's menu from Table YL 
for a child of four to six, for instance : 

TABLE V 

ONE DAY'S MENU 

^ , Dry Nitrogen- Carbohy- 

r, , Total, c..r«»«*. .„ ous Sub- Fat. . . ' 

*«!««*. Gramk. *jg*£*« Btance8 . Grams. *£* 

drams. 

I 1/2 pint milk 679 SS.S 22.3 27.1 33.9 

1 2 pound bread 226 147 20.3 3.6 119.8 

i/S pound dry rice n 2 lb. 

cooked) 5^.6 49 4.5 .1 44-7 

4 ounces orange 114 41. 7 - 1 - 1 9-7 

2 ounces egg 56.6 IQ-5 7-3 5-3 

1/2 ounce butter 14 12 - 1 IX -9 

At average prices, this would cost 12 to 13 cents. 

If the reader wishes to become familiar with dietary 
work, this sort of problem, worked out in a variety 
of costs for two different ages with the substances 

given in Table VI, will serve as an excellent introduc- 
tion. For books on children's diet, from the medical 
standpoint, consult the bibliography. For a diet of 
low cost, see pages 6] to 65, " Children in Institu- 
tions." On soup instead of milk, see page 63. 

The young- mother is advised to keep closely to the 
simple diet of very few foods and. as was said earlier, 



FOOL) FOR THE INFANT 



27 



TABLE VI 

APPROXIMATE COMPOSITION OF SOME COMMON FOOD MATERIALS 



c 

- V 
~ 'J 



25 



Apples 

Barley (pearled) 

Beef (round) 83 

Beef juice (a s p u r- 

cbased) 

Beef juice (as it should 

be) 

Bouillon andconsomme 

Bread (white) 

Butter 

Cheese (American 

pale) ' 

Chicken 34.8 

Cream 

Cream soup 

Eggs (whole) 10.5 

Eggs (yolk) 

Lentil meal I 

Milk (whole) 

Mutton (leg) 

Oatmeal 

Peas (green) 

Potatoes 

Prunes (dried) 

Raisins " 

Rice 

Wheatlet 



15 
10 



n (x 



'5 2 



61-5 I 1. 
10.8 42 

64.2 86 



93 



96 

35-4 
11 

31.6 

48.5 
74 

87.4 
66 

49-5 
io.73 

87 
5i-4 

7- 2 



22.2 

3 1 
11 

43-1 
4-5 

130.6 
67 

84 
23 
59 
73. 
115. 
14. 
67 
70 



U5 




a 




m 




u 









_r 




a 




fc 




I . 


8 


4- 


5 


32. 


2 


2. 


7 



■gea 

x> S 2 



44 

3S5 

164.2 

5 
20.4 

14-5 
43-i 
151 

8.7 
18. 1 

67.5 
33 



56 
352 



r.8 
239-5 



74.6 


3-2 


2.2 


62 


8 


•4 


19 


3.6 




14 


". 3 


21.3 


9 


43 


2-3 


10.4 


55-9 


6.3 



260 
22.7 

308 

76.5 
69 

282 
338.7 
363 
340 



o S 
- t* 

.a — c 



255 

1660 

650 

115 

127 

55 
1205 

3504 

2060 

325 
910 

285 

645 

1705 

1620 

325 

905 

1S60 

465 

325 

1189 

1635 
1685 
1685 



not to give " tastes " of other foods; on no account 
to permit the tasting of tea or coffee. If eggs and 
cream seem to make the little one's diet as costly as 
that of the grown-ups, remember that these few 
years determine the child's future. That an inflamed 
stomach may mean years of invalidism; that an irri- 



28 



nil COST OF FOOD 



tated brain may mean insanit) later, The money 
spent ih>\\ can well be saved later. A.bove all remem- 
ber thai .1 wrong diet humus irritability, bad temper, 
and genera] uncomfortableness. The healthy ani- 
mal is a happy animal. A.s has been indicated above, 
[2 to 15 cents per day, where Food has to be pur- 
chased at cit) talc's, gives a fair average Eor a child 

oi four to six, Where o\\\\ halt that eau he .spent, 

there is always danger that some organ will suffer, 
\\ ell cooked eonune.il and whole wheat bread made 

with tat must then take the plaee of eggs, riee. hut 
tea, and cream 



>r special diets consult Dr. Clement Dukes' "School 
Diet." 



F< H )D F( >R THE Mil LD AT SCH( »' >l, 

" ( )l<l men bear want of food best; then those thai are adults; 
youths hear it least, must especially children, and of them the 
most lively ;uc the leasl capable ( »i enduring it." 

I I [PP0CRA1 i 

The child is now of school age and goes from the 
business of eating and sleeping and telling to his 
companions the wonderful things he lias found out, 
to thai of studying things out of books and reciting 
to others dull facts just as he lias learned them, 
Me passes from the freedom oi play to the restrainl 
of the desk and chair, from constant out -door 
lift 1 (if he is a fortunate child) to the had air of 
the school room, lie is in greal danger oi injur)' 

from these causes even if his food is adapted as per 
fectly as science permits. Bui when thai is wrong 
there is little wonder thai the pace kills. 

At twelve he needs only a little more fat in his food 
than at six. Whether this is because the growth of 
brain and marrow is now very slow, or whether the 
body is best served with the fat made from the car- 
bohydrates, or whether the presence of extra fat in 

terferes with some process it is a fact, that less fat is 

2<) 



30 THE COST OF FOOD 

present in available form in the tissues, and there- 
fore there is less reserve force available. 

The grown man carries several days' rations in his 
tissues in the form of fat so that it is no matter of 
consequence whether he gets full meals on a given 
day. No organ will suffer by even three or four days' 
abstinence if the man is in normal condition, but no 
young animal (note the absence of visible or stored 
fat in veal, in chicken broilers) carries much reserve, 
hence the child who goes to school without break- 
fast becomes exhausted before noon and some brain- 
cell may suffer by atrophy, or, in order to save the 
precious legacy, nutrition may be abstracted from 
muscles already formed and a stunted growth result. 

The food of the child at school is then second in 
importance only to that of the infant, and the parent 
who neglects this part of his child's bringing up is 
culpable and his sin will surely be visited upon the 
third and fourth generations. 

This is not the place to go into an exhaustive dis- 
cussion of the food given at home, for if the general 
family table is well cared for there will be less danger 
to the youth of high-school age from what he finds on 
it than there is in the noon luncheon. 

At this period of change and unrest, flavor begins 
to count for more, and greater pains should be taken 
to use such natural foods as contain possibilities of 
flavor. Asparagus, lettuce, celery, etc., owe their 



FOOD FOR THE CHILD AT SCHOOL 31 

popularity and efficiency not to their food values 
reckoned in calories or proteids but to the stimulus 
to the nerves given by the very small quantity of 
sapid principles. Used with discretion, these are ad- 
juncts worth the excessive price. For a pound of 
food value in this form $1.00 to $2.00 is often paid in- 
stead of 1 to 2 cents for a pound of wheat or corn. 
The cost of many of these things is now excessive be- 
cause their real value is not appreciated, and efforts 
are not directed to producing and preparing them. 

The child at school needs to have temptation 
to indiscriminate eating removed, because modern 
school life is exciting at best and the food should be 
such as to quiet rather than excite. The lack of fresh 
air should be considered in planning the food of the 
child in the school-room, for such confinement is at 
best unnatural. What modification of diet may be 
made to meet such conditions is not yet known. It 
may be found that it is in response to this artificial life 
that sugar is demanded by the modern child. Certain 
it is that sugar may be allowed if it is taken so as 
not to interfere with the appetite for more substan- 
tial food. There is a real reason why sugar and the 
predigested foods should not form a large propor- 
tion of the diet. All food, to be of use, must be in a 
condition to pass through the membranes of the 
digestive tract. Soluble substances are liable to pass 
through too rapidly and in too great quantity for the 



32 THE COST OF FOOD 

immediate need of the tissues, and thus to clog the 
capillaries or irritate the nerves, or give a sense of 
sufficiency before enough is really eaten; soon there 
is a craving for more, and at odd times. 

It is better where a considerable time elapses be- 
tween meals to have a portion of the meal less quickly 
diffusible. Therefore, supply starch rather than 
sugar, bread rather than all meat, but not too diffi- 
cultly digested food as fried eggs and rich gravies — 
which require not only time but energy to make 
available. 

Child-study does not yet include a study of the in- 
fluence of food upon the mental as well as physical 
growth, it nevertheless may have more definite and 
direct bearing than anything else. Over-stimulation 
is impossible to the child who is properly fed; nerv- 
ous troubles are directly traceable to bad digestive 
conditions. It is only in rare cases that, by accident 
or malformation, nerves are so crowded or twisted 
that the currents " short circuit." Most irritation 
arises from inflamed tissues due to products of in- 
digestion. These products are carried by the blood 
to every part of the body; and that which is most 
sensitive is most affected. The child at school needs 
a quality of food which will give a rich blood carry- 
ing only those substances which the tissues can use, 
not loaded with that which must be rejected. In the 
effort to reject, a strain is put upon some part which 



FOOD FOR THE CHILI) AT SCHOOL 33 

becoming weakened, soon shows by inflammation or 
by torpidity that it is not doing its work. 

If there is any place where penury is dangerous 
it is in the food of children at school, and especially in 
the noon lunch of high-school children. The pre- 
vailing American habit of intemperance in eating 
leads to such indulgence by the children that ten 
cents a day must be spent at a lunch-counter to pro- 
cure clean, well-prepared food which will satisfy the 
average pupil. Just as good food could be served 
for five cents, and perfectly sufficient might be given 
for three. This extravagance works injury to the 
most deserving pupils — those from families where 
even twenty-five cents a week for each child is not 
to be thought of aside from the family budget. And 
so because of this gross feeding of the class which 
puts pleasure of the senses before future well-being, 
the child of less fortunate parents, who probably has 
a better brain, must struggle through his school years 
without the warm luncheon which would be so bene- 
ficial. Fortunately he sometimes has far better di- 
gestion and is able to secure from unpromising ma- 
terials a sufficiency of nutrition. 

The necessity of attention to the food of school 
children is becoming recognized, and school authori- 
ties are alive to the wisdom of providing fuel for the 
fires they are kindling. 

The school luncheon for high schools or any 



34 THE COST OF FOOD 

schools where children are prevented from going to 
their homos for a t2 o'clock meal may cost, as we 
have said, from five to ten cents, well served at a 

counter with the least paraphernalia, if it is to serve 
in place of the noon meal, as in manual training 
schools where the session lasts until 3 o'clock, then 

the pupils should be served at tables with due regard 

to neatness and order, and with ample time for two 

Courses. The expense (^\ service may he lessened 
by the pupils buying the served order at a counter 
and taking it themselves to the table which has been 
cleaned by a maid. Rightly managed this is success 
ful and reduces the final cost. 

This kind ot luncheon will cost from ten to twenty 
cents. It need not cost more than eighl to twelve, 
hut taking the average American youth as he is. the 
higher cost only will satisfy, and if means allowed he 
would spend more. 

\ tew words as to the character of this luncheon 
may nol ho amiss: It must be borne in mind that 
the child is going back to study, in not too good 
air — often in very bad air. Therefore not too much 
blood (energy) must be taken from the brain, and yet 
circulation is to be promoted so that fresh blood may 
be brought to the brain-cells before they are too ex- 
hausted to benefit by it. The mental forces are to 
be gently stimulated and not rendered torpid, as is 
the case when the child becomes sleepy. 



1< h »l i I ' >R l III. CHILD A I SCHOOL 35 

P"or quickening the circulation, fluid and warm 
fluid is best in many cases, — such as hot milk, sou]) 
(if not greasy) and cocoa. Cold fluid, as milk or 
fruit, is often quite as acceptable. 

Vigorous children can take the fluid in the form of 
water and the solid in the form of bread and butter 
with or without meat, or in the form of crackers, 
which appeal to children and, if well masticated, seem 
to agree with them even better than the excessively 
yeasty bread so common. American children will 
not be satisfied without some sweet, and, right or 
wrong, they will have it. It may be an effort to off- 
set the unnatural conditions to which they are sub- 
jected, to furnish a quick-burning fuel, one which can 
be used at once and leave no ash behind, one which 
while giving less energy also requires less energy to 
convert into useful material. In any case, the liking 
for sweets must be heeded and that form given which 
will serve the best; namely, fruit-sugars as far as 
possible and milk-sugar as soon as it can be bought 
for ten cents per pound. All dried fruits — dates, figs, 
raisins — are most excellent food and should be freely 
furnished. Gingerbread and cookies may be used 
for variety, but the most attractive viand on account 
of flavor, consistency, texture, and temperature will 
be ice-cream. If properly made, of the best ma- 
terials and with absolute cleanliness, this is a valu- 
able food, high in actual value per pound. In the 



30 nil COST OF KOOD 

warm days of spring and t.ill it is most refreshing*, and 
the quantit} which can be served for ten cents 
will not appreciably lower the temperature of the 
child's body, especially since he is apt to make the 

pleasure last as long as possible. 

It' luncheon is served at table, well made hash. 
Creamed fish or chicken, well made slew;-, eggs, cold 
meats, baked apples, or light puddings ma\ be 
added. For a noon luncheon when brain work is 
demanded after it. pastry, doughnuts, custards, etc.. 
should be prohibited. l'he\ demand too much e\ 

penditure of energy by the body. 

In winter a nnt cake ma\ not be too hearty for 
the robust ones who demand strong food, even frost 
ing on the cake may be permissible, if these rich and 
sweet things not eaten at all at intervening 

times so as to affect the appetite. This precious 
remnant of the instincts of primitive man is worthy 
of cue. A distinguished physician has said. *' If life 
in Other respects is normal, this appetite is likely to 
lead in the right direction." But alas! who leads a 
normal life? Certainl} not the city child for w" 
we find ourselves constantly planning. Young peo- 
ple should not crave the constant stimulant of variety 
and condiment. Something is wrong with their 
bringing n\^ when they do. 



IV 
F( )( )D F( >K Til K ACTIVE YOUTH 

"Food is the only source of liuinaii power to work oi" to 

think." 

For the type <>t young person is usually chosen 
the soldier who may be fed on the compact, hearty 
food (it camp life, provided il is savorily prepared, 

without so many kinds oi dishes a1 one meal as the 

city clerk requires, because his sauces are oul of door 
life, fresh air, something to do all the time. Thai 

is, the soldier in the held, the yonlh in the logging- 

camp or on the farm, keeps up the excess of activity 
begun in childhood, only now it is applied to useful 
and commercial ends. So long as activity is kept 
up, food is demanded in greater quantity than at any 
other time. The purveyor is usually righl when he 
charges for a young teamster double the hoard which 
is ample for a seamstress. However, the cost is not 
necessarily greater for a double amount of food since 
it may he oi less expensive materials than the smaller 
quantity of more COStly food demanded by the whim- 
sical appetite of the sedentary person. 

37 



38 Till l os r OF FOOD 

When the youth is at college instead of at military 
service, how shall his food be graded? His life is one 
of less activity — unless he is on an athletic team — of 
more mental exertion, which we believe requires an 
ample supply of food although the mechanics of 
thought seem to be more economically carried on 
than the mechanics of motion. In both cases ease of 
work depends largely upon accustomedness to the 
kind of effort. 

In a six-day bicycle race the winner used 4770 
calories per day, while the contestant who failed 
on the fourth day used 4010 and the second in the 
race 0005. which increase was evidently not put to 
the best use in developing energy. 

In vigorous youth a taste for all natural foods 
should he cultivated and a power oi digestion de- 
veloped which shall stand him in good stead in after 
life. It is his one chance, and woe to parent or 
teacher who destroys it and indicts life-long misery. 
This is no vision of a disordered brain. Take a 
census of any thousand students in any State in the 
Union and set apart those whose appetite and diges- 
tion are normal, who could live on whatever was set 
before them, and how small a company you would 
find! — hardly enough for one table. 

Most instructive lessons may be learned from the 
training table oi football teams, boat crews, and 



FOOD FOR THE ACTIVE YOUTH 39 

soldiers on the march as to diet for excessive physi- 
cal work. We find that the following is a fair state- 
ment of the results at hand: 

Proteid, Fat, Carbohy- 

Grams. Grams. ?S* 1 ^ Calories. 

Lrrams. 

Average of 7 boat crews.. . 155 177 440 4085 

One football team 181 292 577 5740 

United States Army 85 280 500 4944 

The form in which the food is served is to be that 
to which the men are accustomed, so that they will 
eat it. The soldier takes his ration of bread, bacon, 
beans, or stewed meat and coffee without " frills " of 
strawberry shortcake, ice-cream or coffee-jelly which 
a Harvard boat crew requires. The former costs 15 
to 20 cents, the latter 80 cents to $1.00 per day. 

It will be noticed that the increase is in all the fac- 
tors, not in any one, which fact adds weight to 
the belief that food is to be taken as a whole, not in 
separate parts; that the body can select that which 
it needs and reject the rest. The increased labor of 
the athlete does not, however, always bring lasting 
strength, for some one organ is very apt to be over- 
strained. Few men live to a comfortable old age 
who have over-exerted themselves in youth. 

It is not necessary to quote dietaries in full for this 
active life. The various army rations show what 
may be done, and the U. S. Government bulletins 



40 rHE COST OF FOOD 

give main il1ustr.it ions. A.S a transition from this 
chapter to the next there is considered the cost oi 
food for the large number in the middle \\ est who are 
workers part oi the year and students the rest. It is 
not possible for them to have the delicate flavors and 
great variety which are usually associated with a 
student's table in the East. 

The provider who cannot go above to cents per 
pound for iood value contents himself with cabbage 
and onions, which serve the same purpose as as- 
paragus and lettuce and. it would seem, equally 
well. 

Observation of the habits oi young people in 
America, east and west, north and south, leads the 
author to the conclusion that the use oi sapid vege- 
tables in a suitable way is very much neglected, that 
it is most unfortunate when " I do not like turnip." 
" 1 do not eat squash." are heard at every table., that 
college students avoid green vegetables unless they 
are disguised in soups or sauces. 

There are many good ends served by these de- 
spised roots and leaves, not the least iA which is 
" stuffing," since the twentieth-century digestive tube 
is in danger of growing up — contracting to a string — 
for lack of distending material. The absorbing sur- 
face is distributed over many times in extent the 
nominal area of the tube, and if this surface is 
crowded together instead of distended by fluid and 



FOOD FOR THE ACTIVE YOUTH 4 1 

fibrous mass, absorption cannot so readily take place, 
even if inflammation does not result. 

It lias been said that fear of indigestible food is the 
bugbear of modern life. We might say that the 
word itself is one of the most misused terms. Most 
persons consider any substance which requires a 
long time to go into solution indigestible. Thus 
smoked meats and legumes remain four or five hours 
in the stomach undergoing- a slow macerating proc- 
ess, and yet may be as completely utilized by the body 
in the end as sweetbreads and rusks, which leave the 
stomach in two or three hours. 

There is far less danger from cellulose-bearing 
vegetables than from fat-bearing sauces. Thudichum 
says, ' Cooks should avoid introducing concealed 
forms of fat into dishes needlessly, as they may preju- 
dice physiological nutrition." 

Several educational institutions in the middle 
West are known to feed their students on good and 
sufficient food even for brain-workers at sums vary- 
ing from 14 to 15 cents per day per person. The 
students are for the most part country bred and they 
come to the school for a serious purpose, willing to 
endure hardship if need be for the sake of an end 
in itself, but only a means to the end they seek. One 
such institution furnished the author with the fol- 
lowing bill of fare which will serve as a sample. 
Vegetables are raised either on the college farm or 



42 . THE COST OF FOOD 

are purchased cheaply, which is a large part of the 
secret both of the health of the students and the in- 
expensiveness of the dietary: 



APPROXIMATE BILL OF FARE 

Mondays and Thursdays 

Breakfast: Warm drink; cereals, oatmeal and lira- 
ham gems; vegetables and meat (cod- 
fish balls), bread and butter. 

Dinner: Vegetables, mashed potatoes; meat, beef- 
steak with gravy; side dish, peas or 
Lima beans; dessert, apple pie, hot corn 
bread. 

Supper: Bread and butter. Graham bread and 
sirup, sauce (peaches), doughnuts (hot). 

Tuesdays and Fridays 

Breakfast: Warm drink; cereals, oatmeal and Gra- 
ham gems ; vegetables and meat; hash; 
bread and butter. 

Dinner: Soup; vegetables, baked potatoes; meat, 
bacon, mutton or veal with gravy; des- 
sert, macaroni or canned tomatoes, 
hot corn bread. 

Supper : Biscuit and butter, white and Graham 
bread, sirup, sauce (apple), cheese. 



food for the active youth 43 

Wednesdays and Saturdays 
Breakfast: Warm drink; cereals, oatmeal and Gra- 
ham gems; vegetables and meat; Irish 
stew; bread and butter. 
Dinner: Vegetables, beans or peas; meat, pork 
(with the vegetables); side dish, tur- 
nips, greens or cabbage; dessert, pud- 
ding or tarts, Boston brown bread and 
sirup. 
Supper: Cold beans or peas, bread and butter, 
Graham bread, sauce (berries), plain 
cake. 

Sundays 
Breakfast: Warm drink; cereals,, fried mush and 

sirup (or eggs); vegetables, potatoes; 

meat, fish, gravy; bread and butter. 
Dinner: Vegetables, potatoes; meat, roast meat 

and gravy; side dish, according to 

season; dessert, according to season; 

hot corn bread. 
Supper: Bread and butter, Graham bread, plain 

cake, sauce, cheese. 
Accounts. — Endeavor to use as much as 4J lbs. 
flour, 1 lb. corn, 1 lb. oats, J lb. beans or peas, J lb. 
skim-milk cheese, and 1-5 lb. codfish per person, per 
week. Use as much more of these articles as you 
can make acceptable. 



44 THE COST OF FOOD 

Endeavor not to exceed 2^ lbs. potatoes, ^ lb. 
butter, I lb. pork, .2] lbs. beef, 1 lb. sugar, 2 eggs 
per person, per week. 

Side dishes like peas and Lima beans may be served 
without extra plates or saucers. 

Sirup once a day. 

Several other schools are known to the writer 
where a similar severe restraint is put upon mere ap- 
petite for the sake of gaining an education, and hence 
the confidence with which the assertion on page 41 
is made. 

There is no intention of recommending so limited 
a dietary in every case, but it may be of advantage in 
certain cases to know what is possible without injury 
to health. A strong appetite is a great safeguard 
against the dangers arising from intermittent sup- 
plies, and is a chief factor in the energy of the pioneer. 



V 



FOOD FOR THE YOUTH AT COLLEGE AND FOR THE 
BRAIN-WORKER 

" The digestibility of a food is of far greater concern to a 
brain-worker than its chemical composition." — Hutchison. 

While it is true that food must be considered as 
a whole and not separated into constituents for one 
organ over another, yet there are certain broad gen- 
eralizations derived from ages of experience and 
years of scientific observation which should serve as 
guides to our limited knowledge in diet. 

The horse, when called upon to do heavy draught 
work, which requires steady pulling under direction, 
is apt to be fed with corn and hay; while the spirited 
roadster or hunter, which is called upon to have his 
wits about him and to use reserve force suddenly, has 
oats with little hay and corn. 

The man in a logging-camp at hard work in the 
open air at a low temperature finds pork, beans, and 
pan bread or biscuit none too satisfying and sustain- 
ing, while the student sitting in an over-heated room 
with only a short walk three times a day, often at a 
slow pace, well muffled up, would be unable to digest 

45 



46 THE COST OF FOOD 

a quarter of the lumberman's diet, and finds himself 
clearer of brain with eggs, toast, and coffee for 
breakfast, and chicken and rice for dinner. 

The obvious lesson to be learned is that muscular 

exercise, while it uses proteid and fat, Uses by prefer- 
ence more carbohydrate when it is available than 
mental exercise appears to demand. It is true that 
the body needs to have muscular exercise in order 
to keep its charge — the brain — active, but above 
that, it does seem as if the brain requires more fat 
and nitrogen in proportion. The system must, as 
was said, be kept up in good condition and then — 
so economical is the body — a very little excess 
of " brain food " supplies the need; but it is a waste 
to manufacture it out of substances from which it is 
obtained only at the expense oi many by-products, 
or at the expense oi much digestive force. 

Above all else, the brain-worker needs a " clear 
head " that is one in good working condition, this 
demands blood that is thud enough to circulate freely, 
rich enough in oxygen to keep all the cells bathed in 
it at their maximum vitality, with dissolved nutritive 
substances sufficient for the needs of repair and 
nourishment. There must be absent, moreover, all 
traces of imperfect decomposition in the circulating 
thud which will tend to irritate, inflame, or clog the 
minute blood vessels. 

The food may be anything which serves the proper 



FOOD FOR THE YolTIl AT COLLEGE 47 

purpose of food, provided it is properly prepared. 
The brain-worker is subjected to the great disad- 
vantage of bad air and lack of exercise. This leads 
to a loss of appetite, which is then stimulated by ad- 
ditions of strong flavors and by attractive serving. 
He seems, of all men, the last to see the true remedy 
for lack of strong appetite. If he must continue 
to work in close air and with little activity, then 
take a lesson from the chick in the shell and let him 
eat a limited quantity of the most easily digested 
nitrogenous food, with the fat predominating over 
the carbohydrates and possibly in the latter, sugar 
taking precedence of starch. 

Therefore, while the food for the brain-worker 
should belong to the class easily digested, it should 
not be too concentrated or be predigested so that a 
large amount is at once available in the blood cur- 
rent. For in a short time there is a lack of available 
food which results in exhaustion and possibly in an 
overstepping of the elastic limit of recovery. 

The temptation is great to use, according to the 
directions, the various proprietary foods found in the 
market. The busy student does not seem to grasp 
the idea that food for his body and brain must pass 
through several transformations by means of the al- 
ready present cells before it can nourish new ones. 
He seems to consider it sufficient to pour in prepared 
milks, cereals, etc., just to fill the void. Mental 



48 THE COST OF FOOD 

energy he seems to hold as heaven given without 
the intervention of earth forces. 

To the man whose brain is his capital, the loss of 
an hour oi thinking-power may moan thousands of 
dollars, yet in ninety-nine cases out of one hundred 
such a man will eat a meal which will inevitably 
weaken his power oi thought and possibly change the 
future oi a town or county. 

Unbelief — " no matter what a man eats " — is his 
banc, and when he breaks down at lift)" it is said to 
he because he applied himself too closely — never be- 
cause he was foolish in his diet. 

The contrary picture is even more pitiable; a 
fine mind the prey oi morbid fear lest the iood 
should not suit. This condition often follows a break- 
down and is a result of previous neglect of the most 
obvious laws oi health. It sometimes seems as if the 
more delicately organized the mind, the greater 
danger there is of fixing it upon its own condition. 
For this reason, if for no other, right habits should 
be acquired in youth before the danger of morbid 
mental processes is so great. For this reason, also. 
there should be restaurants where the business man 
and scholar will not be tempted to swallow food sure 
to use up mental energy. His home table should be 
laid with strength-giving and not strength-sapping 
viands, so that the evil may be reduced to a minimum. 

Rut all this care ci^sts too much money and means 



FOOD FOR THE YOUTH AT COLLEGE 49 

too much time given to it! Not at all, if skill and 
judgment are used. Because the flavor of mush- 
rooms adds to the relish of the steak it is not neces- 
sary to buy a pound of fresh mushrooms at $1.00 the 
pound. Because, on a given occasion, an author has 
written a particularly brilliant paragraph after eat- 
ing a dish of sweetbreads there is no cause for fur- 
nishing a like dish every day. 

Students going up for examination, business men 
with decisions of large import to make, professional 
men with great interests at stake, all require the full, 
available amount of nervous energy, and the food 
taken for at least twenty-four hours before should be 
that which will give this energy. In each case it may 
be different. Eggs for one, bacon for another, rare 
beefsteak for a third, while a fourth may have such a 
bank of health to draw upon that rolls and coffee with 
a banana or other fruit may put him in the best condi- 
tion. The usual American breakfast of all kinds 
of flesh, fish, or fowl with vegetables and hot bread, 
never fits a man for his best work. 

The author has expressed elsewhere, and more 
than once, the view that it is the imperative duty of 
the college and university to take in hand the matter 
of food for the future leaders of the nation, as an 
example of what education really stands for if for no 
other reason. 

If Dr. Johnson was right in his statement that 



50 THE COST OF FOOD 

" women can spin very well, but they cannot make a 
good book on cookery," it behooves the university 
man to follow the example of the eighteenth-centurv 
savant and turn his attention to the transmutation 
of the dross of the market into the fine gold of the 
highest human endeavor. 

The unexpected is relished in food as in pleasure 
by those who are sensitive mentally to tastes and 
appearances. A surprise is welcome even if it is a 
simple affair. This means only foresight on the part 
of the provider, and care taken not to exhaust all 
combinations by too lavish a display. 

Happy is the man who is so well balanced that he 
takes his breakfast, as his newspaper, as a matter of 
course, and who is no more ruffled by the fraction of 
variation in the stiffness of his boiled egg than by 
the rumour of an Indian outbreak. Happy is he who 
sits down to the dinner provided for him without 
thought of what he must leave out, with a mind free 
for social pleasure, secure in the skill and knowledge 
of his cook. 

What, then, shall the brain-worker eat? A little 
of anything which his system can. appropriate. His 
table need not be different from that of other men 
in appearance. A few things may well be omitted, 
as rich gravies, sauces, custards, patties, highly 
seasoned or fried entrees. Fresh bread and pastry 
should be rigorously banished, otherwise a liberal 



FOOD FOR THE YOUTH AT COLLEGE 5 I 

diet of .a few well-cooked and well-seasoned dishes 
at any one meal should give mental vigor. 

Of great value to the man who lives much indoors 
are frequent outings of two or three days when all 
the cobwebs may be blown away and all the capil- 
laries flushed out by ocean breezes or mountain 
blasts. The stimulus of change, even if the food is 
only moderately good, is invaluable. Length of time 
is of less importance than completeness of change. 

The joy of living — who would not have it? — and 
yet how few are willing to pay the price of it! A 
little thought, a little self-control, and then forget 
that there is such a thing as digestion. Thrice 
blessed the man whose body is such a perfect ma- 
chine that he is not conscious of it — only in such 
case is he a whole man. 

Just as a suggestion, we may say here that, for the 
family table, forty cents a day per person is ample ; 
thirty cents should suffice, and with " a $5,000 wife*," 
the brain-worker will thrive on twenty-five cents per 
day. (See pages 123 to 133.) 

*At the Columbian Exposition in 1893, a gentleman was heard 
to say, on leaving the " Workman's Cottage " with its family 
living on $500 a year, " It will take a $5,000 wife to do it." 



VI 

FOOD FOR THE TRAVELLER AND FOR rill' PRO- 
FESSIONAL PERSON 

" For they can conquer who believe they can." 

The man who has an aim in life is ready to forego 
certain indulgences which his companions with no 
thought o\ the future provide for themselves. He 

may refrain from smoking or from theatre-going, 

from the social affairs which would cost either money 
or time. 1 le does this in order that he may he a great 
writer, philosopher, or that he may make a name for 
himself as an engineer or a business man. The one 
thing he does not take into account is the quality o\ 
the food he eats and its effect upon his prospects. 
He may consider its cost and deny himself a suffi- 
cient supply, but at the present day. as a rule, the 
danger is in the poor quality rather than in the 
quantity. For lack of knowledge ^i the fundamental 
position of the digestive system in the human econ- 
omy, the majority of persons subject it to a strain 
impossible for it to bear with safety, and then blame 
every other condition for the results. 

From the necessity of the case, the traveller is 

52 



FOOD FOR THE TRAVELLER q^ 

surrounded with stimulating sights and sounds, 
whether agreeable or otherwise, giving the nervous 
system extra labor, and therefore making- it a duty 
to supply it with nutrition. This stimulation has a 
very beneficial effect upon those who have fallen into 
self-pitying ways and whose digestion has been im- 
paired by too much coddling. But the temptation to 
eat, when one has nothing else to do, a variety of 
dishes badly cooked and indifferently served, is too 
great for many persons to resist. The lawyer who 
has to make a plea for his client, the engineer who 
lias to examine a bridge, the pleasure-seeker with a 
long journey before him cannot afford to arrive at his 
destination with mental or physical power in the least 
impaired, in a depressed instead of a refreshed condi- 
tion. 

The most important factor of the many contribut- 
ing to the favorable or unfavorable result of a journey 
is the food taken on the way. ' Just for once it will 
not matter." If tainted meat disguised with juicy 
sauces and French names is eaten, or if a jumble of 
canned lobster, re-frozen ice-cream and puff paste is 
hastily swallowed at a 20-minutes-for-lunch counter, 
a sick headache may warn the rash traveller or acute 
indigestion may follow. More probably the viands 
will not show their vicious character so actively, but 
will simply cause heaviness, loss of sleep, general irri- 
tation producing such a condition of the system 



54 THE COST I »F F< >OD 

that disease finds a weak defence at a time when it 
should be met with strong resistance. Travelling 

has been made safe and comfortable beyond antici- 
pation in nearly all points: good air and proper food 
are still wanting. 

Since the body is not making- any exertion, it 
needs not the foods which furnish bodily energy and 
repair waste, except in so far as the involuntary work 
goes on : there is required less than half the usual 
amount of food. If. in travel, a person can store up 
energy for the future strain as a person is fed in a 
hospital before an operation, it is safe to take more 
food, but this storing demands the right materials 
and that measure oi good air which the railroad train 
does not give, although the steamer may. This is 
a difference between the two modes oi travel 
which seems not to have been considered by either 
caterer or eater. Less meat in made dishes, less 
pastry, less Worcestershire sauce, and more good 
fruit and well-cooked vegetables would conduce to 
the health oi the railway traveller. Crusty rolls, 
fresh butter, cookies for those who like sweets — 
cake, even, is far safer for the occupant of a heated car 
than the usual bill of fare. The dining-car has pro- 
vided most carefully for good water; let it now pro- 
vide safe milk and delicate, digestible dishes. ]t is 
certain that it will do so whenever the public is wise 
enough to demand such a table. As it is. the traveller 



FOOD FOR THE TRAVELLER 55 

who wishes to reach his journey's end in prime condi- 
tion omits two-thirds the bill of fare. 

The professional man or woman — teacher, nurse, 
doctor — who has little outdoor exercise needs to 
observe a similar caution in every-day life, the bal- 
ance between health of mind and of body is very 
easily put out of order, and it should not be as difficult 
as it is to secure. At present the way of the trans- 
gressor is easy. A dish of blueberries and so-called 
cream costs 20 cents, a piece of blueberry pie con- 
taining three times the food value, requiring five 
times the labor to prepare, costs 10 cents. Two 
doughnuts cost 5 cents, while rolls and butter cost 
10, and bread and milk with half the food value 
costs 15. \Yhat a revolution the simple adjustment 
of price of food to value would cause! 

In one's own home the case is little better unless 
the mistress understands how to keep the golden 
mean between the appetite and the need of the body. 
To a great extent each person is a law unto himself, 
but when a dull, sleepy or headachy afternoon is sure 
to follow the partaking of a certain lunch, why con- 
tinue to take that lunch? " She tempted me and I 
did eat." How many a man could say it with perfect 
truth to-day. When shall the lesson of the proverb, 
" A man is what he eats," be thoroughly learned? 

Is life worth living? Then let us learn to make 



56 THE COST OF FOOD 

the most of it, for half its cost is the cost of the food 
to sustain it. 

It is the belief in the potency of natural causes to 
bring' man to his full estate, and an ambition to reach 
that estate that is demanded. Every person must 
make his choice, not only as to a profession and his 
place in it. but as to how much he is willing to pay 
for it. 

THE BUSINESS MAN'S LUNCHEON 

A tour of down-town lunch places at the noon 
hour reveals two sharply-defined classes of patrons: 
(i) Those who believe in steak and chops as best 
brain- and nerve-food, and can afford a dollar or a 
dollar and a half luncheon. (2) Those who believe 
in staying the pangs of hunger for the least money. 
These pay ten cents for a piece of pie and some 
cheese with a glass of milk, or a cup of coffee at five 
cents more, and get just as much nutritive value as 
the other — provided the body can assimilate it in that 
form : 

Proteid, Fat. Carbohydrate, r , • 
Grams. Grains. Grams. Clones. 

Chop 15 20 247.5 

Potatoes 2.1 .1 17.7 82 

Salad 5 1.6 1.4 23 

Orange-ice 12 49 

17.6 21.7 31. 1 401 

} mince pie 6 15 66 436 

I oz. cheese 3.5 4.1 .3 53.7 

\ pint milk 8.3 10. 12.5 178 

17.8 29.1 78.8 668 



FOOD FOR THE TRAVELLER 57 

. If the luncheon is to serve as dinner, double its 
value in both cases may be put upon it. 

I labit is, alas, all-powerful, and the man with great 
business interests at stake, which he must consider at 
his desk, will continue to rush out for his quick and 
hasty luncheon just as he did five or ten years before 
when, as a subordinate, he was on the street half the 
morning going from one business building to an- 
other, to the wharves, to the custom-house, etc. 
Very few men seem to adapt their habits to their con- 
dition. Again and again I must say it, it is because 
of their unbelief in the effect of food on their physical 
condition and on. their careers. 

THE SHOPPER'S LUNCHEON 

The majority of women who throng the stores 
may also be divided into two classes: (1) The care- 
ful housewife with a long list, who is appalled at the 
prices of the restaurant and who tries to finish her day 
of unaccustomed exercise on a slice of toast and a cup 
of tea, or takes chocolate eclairs or a small ice-cream, 
with the natural consequence of a raging headache, 
blunted judgment, and unsatisfactory purchases. 
(2) The woman who boards and who means to eat 
something she likes or something new, and who does 
not mind the time it takes. She comes down town 
nearly every day, and she does not travel half the city 
over, in one day, as does the first woman, she saunters 



58 THE COST OF FOOD 

slowly along one street or two at most. Her luncheon 
consists of a medley of croquettes, salads, and sweets 
which could never agree; dishes dressed over so that 
the original ingredients may never be revealed, and 
she pays fifty to seventy-five cents for the next day 
in bed, or perhaps a physician, and her family pay in 
unhappiness. 

Until one makes a business of visiting the popular 
restaurants of any city, one does not realize what a 
force these restaurants are in the forming and fixing 
of food habits. Many attempts have been made to 
provide hygienic luncheons, but the number of those 
willing to reform at the expense of a little time and 
thought is too small at any one point to sustain such 
an establishment. Besides, the only persons who 
have interest enough in the problem are those cranks 
who believe a single article of diet, or a peculiar way 
of cooking, is all-sufficient. In every city there may 
be found, in out-of-the-way places, " eating-houses " 
presided over by some motherly soul where really 
good food may be had under plain old-fashioned 
names; where one need not fear to eat of any dish 
on the bill of fare ; where below stairs it is as clean as 
the visible portion and where twenty-five or thirty 
cents will procure a good meal. 



FOOD FOR THE TRAVELLER 59 

BACHELOR BOARDING 

I have elsewhere estimated that 25% of the family 
income was a sufficient proportion to pay for raw 
food material and 15% more for the preparation, 
serving, etc. For an income of $1,200 per year this 
would mean $300 for food and $200 for serving it, or 
$500 out of the $1,200 for a family of three or four 
persons, including the maid and occasional guests. 

The young man with a salary of $1,200 is apt to 
pay $5 or $6 a week for his table-board, $300; and 
lunches and suppers beside to the extent of $150. 
Now, then, can he consider matrimony and the sup- 
port of a family? He rightly feels that he must live 
well in order to do his work well, and he does not 
know how to do it for less, and no one is solving the 
problem for him. If he marries, his wife has only 
the same bachelor experience to go upon and can 
only double the expense. What wonder that it is a 
current saying among men, " Oh, I can't marry until 
I have* $3,000 a year." A fine commentary, this, on 
the intelligence and thrift of American youth, and a 
good and sufficient reason for the decrease of na- 
tive population! 

A word to the thoughtful should be sufficient. An 
adequate discussion of the bearing of these facts 
would lead us too far afield. 



YII 

FOOD FOR THOSE IN PENAL AND PAUPER 
INSTITUTIONS 

"Deficient alict, like all morbid conditions, both corporeal and 
mental, is a vitiating and degenerating influence." 

— King Chambers. 

Those unfortunate individuals who arc kept at the 
expense of the State may be conveniently divided 
into two general classes: 

i. The potential citizen, as pauper children who 
may grow up into men and women returning to the 
State full value, criminal youth who may be brought 
into better ways and so repay the care and trouble; 
and the sick poor, who also come under this class. 

2. The pauper past work, the hopelessly insane, 
and the vicious. 

The food for the latter class may be dismissed 
with few words. While the State undertakes to care 
for them, it must not starve them nor give them 
such food as to cause diseased conditions. This 
latter is self-evident, because a sick person costs more 
to care for than a well one. But there is no obliga- 
tion to give them more than that quantity and 

quality which will serve the ends of existence. They 

60 



FOOD FOR CRIMINALS AND PAUPERS 6l 

have forfeited any rights to pampering. Hence it 
is that when a subsistence ration is to be studied, 
scientific men all over the world go to these institu- 
tions for data. There are several other reasons why 
conclusions arc more valuable in such cases. The 
inmates have little chance of getting - food from out- 
side. They are usually under the eye of the physi- 
cian. The raw food material is of standard quality, 
of which the analyses are more numerous, and there- 
fore more to be relied upon. It is limited in variety, 
purchased by contract, and the amounts served are 
more definitely known. This is in cases where there 
is no fraud, and where the cooking is skilfully and 
conscientiously done — which is, alas, not always the 
case. 

In one institution, of the first class, no longer in 
existence, several hundred children from six to four- 
teen years were fed at a cost of 9.5 cents with sufficient 
good raw material which was spoiled in the cooking, 
— insufficiently stewed beans, which caused diarrhoea 
in many cases, sour bread, etc. Their blotched, 
pinched faces, and stunted bodies, were pitiful to be- 
hold. It were better that they should have been put 
out of the way like superfluous kittens than that they, 
through no fault of theirs, should be kept alive to be 
no credit to themselves or to the State. 

The inexpensive foods require the most skill in 
cooking, and if such an institution will not pay its 



62 THE COST OF FOOD 

cooks well, it should allow more rations to make up 
for those that are spoiled. For three hundred per- 
sons fed, a difference of five cents a day in cost of 
raw materials means over $5,000 per year. It will 
pay any institution to spend $1,000 in salaries to save 
this amount, and yet to secure more palatable and 
more nutritious food, which can be done so readily 
with sufficient knowledge. 

See Table VII, p. 69, for some estimates of costs 
and quantities as a basis for experiment in other 
cases. 

The same is true of these children and young 
people as of more favored ones, that any injury from 
wrong nutrition affects the whole after-life and 
lessens the chance of their growing up to be re- 
spectable citizens. So fully is this understood abroad 
that several foreign countries see to it that school 
children are fed at State expense rather than run the 
risk of having to care for them later as vicious or in- 
competent persons. 

Seven cents a day, or nine at most, should serve 
for those of whom the world has nothing more to 
hope ; while for the others seventeen cents may be 
allowed for the older and fifteen for the younger 
ones, rather than a mean of twelve or fourteen for all. 

Sharp separation of the inmates into groups is thus 
called for in feeding, however undesirable it may be 
from certain other ethical standpoints. 



FOOD FOR CRIMINALS AND PAUPERS 63 

For young children maintained at city or chari- 
table charge, soup must take the place of milk to a 
certain extent. A sufficient milk diet will, as we have 
seen, cost 12 to 16 cents per day; so that in cases 
where only 9 cents is allowed this is out of the ques- 
tion. A glance at the following table will show how 
various soups may be substituted. Starchy grains, as 
rice and barley, take the place of the sugar in 
milk. 

From UrTelman's table, page 19, we find that a 
child of 5 needs in grams : 

Proteid, Fat, Carbohydrates, ^ , • 
Grams. Grams. Grams. Calories. 

56 43 145 1224 

3 pints of ordinary milk, costing 

10 or 12 cents 46 43 67.7 871 

Bread, 4.5 oz., 1.7 cents 13 1.3 71.0 358 

59 44-3 133.7 1229 

2 pints barley soup, 5 cents 36.2 27.7 85.0 743 

2 " pea " 5 " 13.0 1.3 71.0 358 

1/2 oz. butter, 0.5 " 14.0 .... 130 

49.2 43.0 156.0 1231 

Bread and soup, then, may be substituted at one 
or two meals for bread and milk, as giving the 
needed fluid as well as proportional ingredients. Of 
course tea and coffee are not to be thought of. 
Cocoa is too expensive, although a flavor of it in hot 
milk is much to be preferred to the day-long decoc- 
tion of shells so popular with institution cooks. 
Gingerbread, both hard and soft, cookies with much 
of the sugar outside. If possible, some rice well 
cooked, not mushy, but with separate grains, should 



6\ THE COST OF FOOD 

take the place of so much potato. Rice-milk may be 
used. One pound of rice contains 69% starch and 
yields 1600 calories at a cost of five or six cents. 

One pound of potatoes contains 19% of starch and 
yields only 320 calories at a cost of two or even three 
cents for the portion used. It requires some 5 or 6 
pounds of potatoes to give the fuel value of one 
pound of rice. 

Potato puree and stale rolls rubbed up as a milk 
puree make an acceptable variety. The Germans 
use veal as soup-stock much more than we do, and 
insist that suitable veal is much more digestible than 
beef, which is rarely used in their dietaries for chil- 
dren. 

A common division for the mid-day meal is 16 to 
20 grams of albumen and 32 to 40% of the cost for 
the day. The quantity may be 150 grams rice-milk, 
or 300 grams soup with 35 to 45 grams meat. After 
the age of two years, 10 pfennigs (2.5 cents) per day 
are allowed. 

ACTUAL BILL OF FARE, ORPHAN ASYLUM 

[Cost 9.5 cents per person daily — average for six months, 1899.] 

Sunday 

Breakfast: Liver, bread, coffee or tea. 

Dinner: Corned beef, stewed fruit, hominy, and 

dessert. 
Supper: Bread, gingerbread, tea or milk. 



FOOD FOR CRIMINALS AND PAUPERS 65 

Monday 

Breakfast: Sausage, bread, coffee or tea. 
Dinner: Roast beef, rice, potatoes, and gravy. 
Supper: Biscuit, butter, tea or milk. 

Tuesday 

Breakfast: Oatmeal, bread, coffee or tea. 
Dinner: Hash, slaw, potatoes, and gravy. 
Supper: Bread, molasses, tea or milk. 

Wednesday 

Breakfast: Scrapple, bread, butter, and coffee. 
Dinner: Pork, beans, potatoes, and dessert. 
Supper: Bread, butter, tea or milk. 

Thursday 

Breakfast: Gravy, bread, butter, and coffee. 
Dinner: Brunswick stew, slaw, and potatoes. 
Supper: Apple butter, bread, tea or milk. 

Friday 

Breakfast: Oatmeal, butter, bread, and coffee. 
Dinner: Roast beef, hominy, potatoes, and gravy. 
Supper: Bread, butter, milk or tea. 

Saturday 

Breakfast: Bread, butter, coffee or tea. 

Dinner: Ham, cabbage or turnip, and potatoes. 

Supper: Apple butter, bread, tea or milk. 



66 THE COST OF FOOO 



PROPOSED MENU FOR HOME. TO COST II CENTS 

[Prices "Ruling in 1898.] 

Sunday 

Breakfast: Boiled rice or hominy with molasses, 

bread, cereal coffee or milk. 
Dinner: Roast beef and gravy, potatoes, pudding, 

bread. 
Supper: Bread and butter, milk, apple sauce. 

Monday 

Breakfast: Oatmeal with milk and sugar, bread. 

cereal coffee or milk. 
Dinner: Beef soup with vegetables, cold slaw (?), 

bread. 
Supper: Bread and butter, milk, prune sauce. 

Tuesday 

Breakfast: Salt fish and cream, bread, cereal coffee 

or milk. 
Dinner: Baked beans, bread, pickles, pudding:. 
Supper: Bread, gingerbread, cheese, milk. 

Wednesday 

Breakfast: Corn cake and butter, cereal coffee or 

milk. 
Dinner: Corned beef and vegetables, bread. 
Supper: Bread, apple butter, milk. 



FOOD FOR CRIMINALS AND PAUPERS 6y 

Thursday 

Breakfast : Oatmeal and molasses, bread, cereal 

coffee or milk. 
Dinner: Beef stew, bread, pudding. 
Supper: Bread and butter, sugar-buns, milk. 

Friday 

Breakfast: Corn mush with milk and sugar, bread, 

cereal coffee or milk. 
Dinner: Fish chowder or baked fish and potatoes, 

bread. 
Supper: Bread and butter, baked apples, milk. 

Saturday 

Breakfast: Hash, bread, cereal coffee or milk. 
Dinner: Pea or bean soup, bread, stewed fruit. 
Supper: Bread and butter, cookies, milk. 

General Directions 

Breakfast: When it can be done with economy, sub- 
stitute hash or stew. 

Dinner: For puddings, use rice (with or without 
raisins), bread and apple, tapioca, corn- 
starch, bread, etc., making variety. 

Supper: Use Graham bread occasionally. 

INSPECTION OF AN INSTITUTION AS TO FOOD-SUPPLY 

i. If for well persons, note appearance of inmates: 
character of flesh (solid and muscular or flabby); 



68 THE cost OF FOOD 

color, if normal; complexion, if clear and normal, or 
blotched and " broken out " on lips, ears, or eyes. 
Note eyes, if clear and alert, or dull and heavy; note 
movements, if full and vigorous, or languid; watch 
a meal to see if the food is relished or rejected. If 
complaints, see what they are. If a hospital, the con- 
dition of the patients is not so good a guide, except 
as to relish and gain in condition. This is difficult 
to get at, and considerable diplomacy is often needed 
to accomplish anything like a fair judgment. 

2. Inspect the kitchen just before the food is 
served. Do this for the three meals, and stay during 
the serving and note what comes away uneaten. 

Points: (a) thorough cooking; 

(b) cleanly condition of utensils ; 
(f) attractive serving (hot or cold); 

(d) note indigestible gravies or sauces ; 

(e) quantity; is it sufficient? 

(f) " method of cooking. 

3. Larder and storehouse: Note quality and clean- 
liness, especially variety. 

4. Personnel: Are the employees interested to do 
the best they know how? Are they intelligent? Are 
they teachable? 

5. Cost: Is it excessive? Can equally nutritious 
and attractive fare be served for less money? 



FOOD FOR CRIMINALS AND PAUPERS 



6 9 



TABLE VII 

DIETARY OF THREE INSTITUTIONS FURNISHED FROM 
THE SAME MARKET 



A 

Inmates. 



iy. 



Number 

Cost (cents) per person da 

* Proteid " " ' 

* Fat 

* Carbohydrates " 

* Calories " ' 
Oz. per person 

Distributed as follows : 
Meat and fish (fresh and salt) 

Eggs 

Cheese 

Milk 

Butter and lard 

Flour, cornmeal, crackers. . . 

Oatmeal, hominy, rice 

Peas, beans 

Tapioca, sage, corn-starch... 

Sugar 

Dried fruits 

Potatoes 

Fresh vegetables 

Apples 

Molasses 



1754 
7-34 
122 

69 

624 

3700 

65.58 

10.23 
.01 



2.84 



24.06 

•34 

1-34 



.03 



15.64 
6-33 



4.76 



Officers. 



107 
40.6 



157-24 

45.30 

I.03 

.20 

23-33 

1.78 

8.80 

• 52 

.76 

.03 

3-90 

•29 

29-85 

39-33 

.96 

1. 16 



B 

Inmates 
and Em- 
ployees 



375 

12.9 
110.0 
114. o 

449.0 
3327 

75-52 

10.80 

.86 

.28 

16.20 

1.80 

12.20 

1.20 

.70 

.20 

3-05 

•31 

i3-5o 

12.87 

-85 
.70 



C 

Inmates 
and Em- 
ployees. 



194 

18.8 

138.O 

180.O 

47.I.O 

417I.O 

94.71 

17.21 
I.06 

•35 
28.46 

1-77 

13-54 

1.72 

.78 

•34 
3-53 

.76 
12.02 
19.96 

.21 



* No data given as to number of guests in column A 2 . 



VIII 

FOOD FOR THE PERSON IN A HOSPITAL 

"Just as metal has to be extracted from the ore before it is 
any use, so by the process of digestion the nutritive constituents 
have to be extracted from a food before they can be absorbed." 

— Maly. 

" The careful preparation of food is now recognized to be of 
vital importance to an invalid and a valuable assistance, in many 
cases, to the physician in hastening the recovery of a patient." 

— Helena V. Saciise. 

While we may blame a well man for setting his 
appetite above his intellectual or business interests, 
we are obliged to humor a sick man as far as his 
physical welfare will permit. 

The nutritive constituents are extracted from or- 
dinary food only when it is mingled with and saturated 
by the digestive juices sent out from the various 
glands in response to the stimulus of odor, flavor, 
and texture, real or imagined. If the juices do not 
flow, then the food remains inert and no real " feed- 
ing " can take place. Predigested foods are offered 
in this emergency, but belong to the dispensary 
rather than to the kitchen. 

It is to most persons a shock and an excitement 

70 



FOOD FOR THE PERSON IN A HOSPITAL /I 

to find themselves in such an unaccustomed place 
as a hospital and with so many other people, and the 
first point to be gained is to make them comfortable 
and contented ; the second, to give them suitable 
food, presented in such a way that they will relish it. 
The " relish " goes a long way toward making the 
food " suitable.'' A contented frame of mind and faith 
in the nurse and in what she brings increases the 
secretions and relaxes the nervous tension, so that 
the energy of the body may be given to digesting 
and assimilating the food. 

Therefore, before considering what to give the 
patients who are conscious, a few words on how to 
serve it are appropriate: 

First, that food which is served hot should be hot 
and not lukewarm; that which is to be cold should 
be cold. If the hospital appliances are not favorable 
to this, then they must be so arranged as to admit 
of it before any success can be hoped for. 

Too large portions should not be given at once, as 
an appetite for more will tend to cause the patient 
to thoroughly digest what is taken; and it must al- 
ways be borne in mind that it is not what is eaten 
but what is assimilated that nourishes the body, and 
it is more important to bear this in mind in a hos- 
pital than anywhere else, since exercise and dis- 
tracting occupation are wanting and the action of 
the system is apt to be sluggish. 



72 THE COST OF FOOD 

Novelty in food does not commend itself to people 
who have had little variety in their lives; they relish 
best that to which they have been accustomed. 
Neatness and attractiveness go a long way toward 
making food palatable; therefore, this aid should be 
used as far as possible, especially since ways of serv- 
ing can be varied more readily than the articles of 
diet. A few pretty dishes to carry to those to whom 
food in thick crockery would be utterly repellent 
serve to distract attention from the act of eating. 
Even if there are only a few such dishes in the ward, 
it will be an occupation for the patient to guess to 
whom they will be given at any particular meal. 

Of course, this takes time and thought, and a hos- 
pital nurse is often overworked; yet, if she real- 
izes the great importance of this part of the means 
used for recovery, she will find time for it. She will 
soon learn to whom it will make a difference and to 
whom it is a waste of time to offer such attentions. 

DIET IN GENERAL 

Surgical patients and those who are simply to be 
" fed well " should have good and sufficient food, 
and that which is easily digested. Since they are no 
longer at work in the open air, even strong men 
should not be fed upon fried pork and heavy dump- 
lings, but they miss the accustomed flavor of hearty 



FOOD FOR THE PERSON IN A HOSPITAL 73 

food, and bacon may be given occasionally, and, 
twice a day, meat or fish of some kind with potato, 
bread, and butter. These four articles — meat, potato, 
bread, and butter — make up the diet of a large part 
of hospital patients in the common wards. In their 
own homes they are not accustomed to soups, and 
it is a part of their education while they are in the 
hospital to teach them the value of food so prepared. 
If they find themselves comfortable and growing 
stronger on such diet, they will believe in it. No 
better school of diet could be found than an intelli- 
gently managed hospital. Even though the patient 
stavs but a week or ten days, he should have srained 
something which will benefit him in his after life, 
for cleanliness and diet must always be insisted upon. 
It is, therefore, of the utmost importance that the 
nurses should be as perfectly trained in the serving 
of food and in the general principles of diet as in any 
other portion of their duties, for no medicine or 
disinfection can take the place of nutritious food as 
a factor in recovery. 

Instead of combating the whims of patients or 
yielding weakly to them, a knowledge of what is best 
in general practice, and experience of how to " ad- 
minister " food, should be shared by house officers 
and nurses. There are at least five requirements : 

First. Production of good flavor and odor. Here 
again is the difficulty of dealing with a mass of peo- 



74 THE COST OF FOOD 

pie, for while garlic is dear to one man's soul, 
another loathes it. Certain carefully prepared com- 
binations must be decided upon, and in special cases 
the coveted flavor added after the food reaches the 
wards. The success oi certain of the New England 
Kitchen dishes shows that this is possible, though 
only after ' study am! experiment. All strong 

odors should be avoided — those which may reach 
from one bed to another. Irritating spices, such as 
solid particles oi pepper, cloves, etc.. should not be 
used in food for the wards. 

Second. Each article should be prepared in such a 
way as to make little tax u\^o\\ the digestive system, 
because digestion uses up energ) which should go 
to recuperation. This is a most important point. 
The human body can at best produce only a limited 
amount of energy, and if an undue portion ot this is 
consumed in preparing the food taken for absorption. 
there is less left for the process oi repair which, in the 
hospital, uses the surplus otherwise given to work. 
This surplus energy is small at most, probably only 
about one-third the total of which the body at its best 
is capable of producing. 

As the flow of blood which carries the nutritive 
material to all parts of the body is usually sluggish, 
because oi the passive repose oi the patient, it is 
essential that it should be sufficiently rich in nutritive 
value. Yet so sensitive are the living cells that they 



FOOD FOR THE PERSON IX A HOSPITAL 75 

are paralyzed by too great a concentration, just as a 
plant or tree is killed by too much fertilizer. For 
this reason to^nl should be given in small quantities 
at frequent intervals, when it is so prepared as to go 
at once into the circulation. Eggs and soup (\o not 
" stand by " as docs the hearty diet of the well person. 

Third. If a food properly prepared from cheap 
material can replace an expensive one. it should be 
used, since more people can have the benefit of care 
when the expense per capita is low in any public in- 
stitution, and since principles o\ sound economy 
should rule in the use o\ trust funds. 

Fourth. As a rule, it is the heat-giving and energy- 
giving food which is most required, with that which 
spares the precious albuminous tissue, rather than 
so much albumen as is often given. In some cases 
of loss of blood or lack of flesh, rapid utilization of 
nitrogen is desirable, and then eggs and steak may 
be needed as a process of stuffing. This is more or 
less dangerous on account oi the extra work driven 
to such organs as the kidneys, and the production of 
heat and energy in this way is wasteful compared 
with that produced by legitimate foods. 

Fifth. Soups, broths, fruit soups, sweetened drinks, 
which are ninety-five to ninety-eight per cent of 
water; fruits, jellies, and porridge, which are eighty 
to ninety per cent water, should form the main diet 
of many hospital patients for several reasons: 



THE 

.;..• con tains s that it 

can ' i readily mixed with the 

mtril the irst sp 

ful m ing s and 

and stimul; 

the las: s] •■.ful is Hiis is 

of - g - te. 

The heal ts 

• the wh l< 
legree, is stim g I cos 

Inmi st cases recovery is hastened bj apid 

removal of the accumul sf e matei ..'.. For 

this th< lood must be dilute in order to take up 
more substances in its >sag< t is saturated 

ition it c >t do this 

The more or less feeble and slugg sh cells can- 
not take as m [irishmen! m< s ac 
ones and the - n by which they are 
rounded should be dilute. 

(e) To keep up the water lost by eva] and 
envise, and to furnish enough - will 

be an excess avail to keep 

the - Lee coo'., this is often the best anti tic. 

(f) It is often easier to administc ishment in 
uid form. 



FOOD FOR THE PERSON IM A HOSPITAL 77 

HOUSE M ET OR NORMAL Dl E I' 

The foregoing will enable us to consider a hill of 
tare lor the house in general. Since economy is im- 
perative, as many iA the dishes as possible, should he 
cooked in hulk, enougfh tor the whole house, leaving 
the extras to he given for each oi the five tables 
usual in a hospital, of which the patients' is the most im- 
portant. 

The officers' table needs both easily digested and 
hearty food, since hard work, long hours, and anxiety 
are making a drain upon the system, while coolness 
and nerve are essential; therefore iood should not be 
irritating or indigestible. The nurses' table must 
meet the same requirements. The employees, on the 
other hand, have hard work and should have heart \ 
iood and that which will stand by, but it must be 
consistent with strict economy. 

Next in importance to the full house-diet, " nor- 
mal diet." is the convalescent dirt, for those who are 
sufficiently recovered from acute disease to take 
normal diet with the elimination o\ the hearty dishes, 
but who are not able to take full quantity. This 
should be made up from such dishes on the list for 
the day as can be taken from the normal diet and 
supplemented from the special list which is posted 
daily as prepared. It must be borne in mind by both 
house officers and nurses that a separate order means 



78 THE COST OF FOOD 

increased cost, not so much in the article of food or- 
dered, but in the time of the high-class service 
needed to prepare it properly, and in the interruption 
of the general movement of the service. 

In hospitals the cost of food is a most important 
part of the total expense, and it should he most care- 
fully regulated. That is, for the patients to whom 
food is life and for whom aversion to food means 
death, no expense should be grudged. Cream, 
eggs, beef-juice, chops, anything really needful 
should be supplied, but for those patients to whom 
corned beef and cabbage represent luxury, it is not 
necessary to stimulate an artificial appetite. Neither 
is it necessary that the strong and hearty attendant 
should have the fruit and delicacies given to paying 
private patients. There is a lack of moral sense in 
the community which permits the use of trust funds 
for very different purposes from those for which they 
were devised. 

When one recalls the early struggles and self- 
denial of the man or woman who has left $10,000 or 
$50,000 to aid 111 the relief of suffering humanity, it 
is not with entire equanimity that the expert called 
in to examine the dietary finds that 23.6 oz. of meat, 
37 oz. milk, 20 oz. potatoes, 2.6 oz. butter and 5 oz. 
of sugar are on record as being purchased which, 
with other things, bring up the cost to 50 cents or 
over; nearly twice the amount and cost needful. 



FOOD FOR THE PERSON IN A HOSPITAL 79 

New England thrift is passing with the disappear- 
ance of the careful housewife, and a great impatience 
of any restraint in food is evident on all sides. So 
that authorities cannot be held especially blame- 
worthy for an increase in the cost of carrying on this 
side of the work, any more than they may be justly 
criticised for spending thousands for modern sur- 
gical equipment; one room to-day costs as much as 
a whole hospital fifty years ago. What authorities 
should do is to put the same grade of intelligence at 
work on the food side as on the medical and surgical 
side, and to be sure that a fair equivalent is obtained 
for the trust funds expended. In the above case, it 
is quite impossible that such large amounts, together 
with the other very liberal supplies, could have been 
eaten with safety by the inmates, some of whom 
would have been made ill by half the quantities. 
All large establishments have leaks which need con- 
stant attention. 

There is one feature of modern hospital develop- 
ment which demands careful consideration. While 
we are crowding well people in great numbers into 
hotels and apartment-houses, while large restaurants 
and dining-rooms are increasing, the successful treat- 
ment of the sick and insane is demanding more and 
more isolation in small groups and even individual 
service. This is far more expensive, since the waste 
is necessarily greater and since the individual likes 



So THE COST OF FOOD 

are catered to to a greater extent. Again, pay-wards 
and cottages are now connected with nearly all in- 
stitutions, and in these, patients demand the same sort 
of food as that to which they have been accustomed. 
This fact, probably more than any other, has led to 
the increased cost of food. If it seemed necessary to 
employ a chef to cook for these, why should not 
nurses and house doctors have the same quality? 
When one sees and handles tempting food, one feels 
aggrieved if forbidden to taste. Hence it is not un- 
natural that employees should use the top of the 
eight-quart can of milk for their own coffee, or take 
toll of the fruit and delicacies going past them. Un- 
less they can be made to feel that it is dishonest, they 
will continue to do it if the stores are not under lock 
and key. 

A small establishment is in this way more expen- 
sive, because it is not possible, as it is in a large one, 
to have a separate table for the different grades. 

For example, in an institution with iooo patients 
there will be four grades of employees: 

ist. House officers and heads of departments. 

2d. Nurses and second assistants. 

3d. Engineers, workmen, etc. 

4th. Scrub-women, janitors, choremen, etc. 

Each of these grades can have a separate eating- 
room with different hours and bill of fare costing 15, 
25, 30, and 50 cents per day, or 20, 30, 35, and 75 



FOOD FOR THE PERSON IX A HOSPITAL 8 1 

cents per clay, as the case may be, but the average 
will not be above 20 or 30 cents. 

In a small hospital with the cottage system, where 
all have the same food, the expense will probably be 
ten cents per capita higher. 

The only thing for the governing head of an in- 
stitution to do is to have its accounts so kept that 
he can study its own special conditions and decide 
what, all things considered, it is best to do, and then 
to give orders to have it strictly carried out. In one 
case, $P2,ooo was saved in a year by this means. A 
little relaxing of the strictness, however, in deference 
to the common demand soon allowed the expense to 
creep back. 

In the present transition stage from the old 
to the new, culinary and housekeeping manage- 
ment is in much the same condition in households 
large and small. Neither the apparatus nor the help- 
ers are suitable and adapted to the work they should 
do to bring this department up to the standard of 
the best modern equipment. Here is a field for in- 
vention and organization open to women with busi- 
ness training. Will they take advantage of it? 

The same struggle is going on in schools and col- 
leges — a struggle caused by the decided change in 
tastes and habits of the people without a correspond- 
ing change in the means of meeting them. Every- 
where improvements are made in building; labora- 



82 THE COST OF FOOD 

tories are added, libraries are put up, lecture-halls 
are better lighted and heated, and some feeble at- 
tempts are made to ventilate them. The institution 
is lauded as being- up to date. The last place to feel 
this wave of progress is the culinary department. 
Old worn-out ranges, low unventilated kitchens, 
grease-soaked sinks and tables are retained. 

When the therapeutic value of food is more fully 
recognized, there will be greater willingness to 
authorize the expense required in providing and pre- 
paring the best. If the surest means of securing im- 
munity from attacks of disease is well-nourished tis- 
sues, then the best handmaid of medicine is that 
nourishment which will be accepted by the tissues, 
and thus aid in vanquishing the enemy which has al- 
ready a foothold. The members of the medical pro- 
fession have yet to appreciate to the full what the 
scientific cook could do for them. The difficulty lies 
with the opinions of the general public, as Airs. 
Campbell * says: 

" It is always easier, even for otherwise intelli- 
gent folk, to swallow something from a bottle or 
box than to obey natural law. When old Plum's 
brother Darius died, they flocked in over the hills to 
the funeral, and one of the cousins asked what Darius 
had died of, and Aunt Prissy, who had provided him 

* The Linborough Sanitarium. 



FOOD FOR THE PERSON IN A HOSPITAL 83 

pie three times a clay for forty-five years, made the 
reply, ' Darius died because his digeesters was all 
wore out.' And again she says: 

" I can study degenerates right here — that is what 
you are all at, I believe; a population that has chosen 
patent medicine instead of common sense, all the dis- 
eases born of old English obstinacy and New Eng- 
land folly." 

To adapt the food to the conditions of environment 
is to go a long way toward conquering fate. 

To recognize the essentially animal character of 
the human body, while not ignoring the temporary 
power of the mind over matter, is essential to a sound 
therapy of food. 



TX 



FOOD FOR MIDDLE LIFE AND OLD AGE 

" Discerne of the coming on of yeares, and thinke not to doe 
the same things still, for age will not be defied."— Bacon, 

If we agree to the definition of food given on 
page 13, we shall be prepared to accept the state- 
ment that when the enthusiasm of youth abates and 
the active movements decrease; when we allow the 
children to go up-stairs for a forgotten handker- 
chief; when we contentedly sit on the piazza and see 
the young- people start off to the mountain or the 
lake, we are not in a condition to utilize the same 
amounts of food as when we were younger and more 
restless. 

Appetite usually outstays physiological need, and 
when the art of the cook adds flavor and daintiness 
of serving to the food, the danger is tenfold. Under 
the present condition of abundance of food and of 
money to spend, more middle-aged persons eat too 
much than too little; eat too concentrated food and 
drink too little water. 

A list kept for some years of persons of fifty to 

sixty dying suddenly is full of cases like the follow- 

84 



FOOD FOR MIDDLE LIFE AND OLD AGE 85 

ing: " He seemed to be in ordinary health during 
the forenoon, and at noon lunched heartily in the 
State House Cafe; at 1.30 he complained of not feel- 
ing well. ... At 2.30 he was dead." 

The case of a well-known and favorite author was 
reported thus: " At noon to-day he attended a lunch- 
eon to bid farewell to some friends about to leave 
for the Mediterranean. He was cheerful and gave 
no indication of illness. After the luncheon he started 
on a walk. . . . He felt ill, asked leave to lie down at 
a house, and was found dead in a few minutes/' 

The reporter never seems to connect cause and 
effect. 

The mere number of years is not so important as 
the physiological age of the person, if we may so ex- 
press it. Whenever, from any cause, the individual 
ceases to eliminate the excess and begins to store up 
substance, it is time to take precautions lest the 
strain cause a weakness in some organ or tissue. 
Overwork bears the blame for the breakdowns so 
common. Overwork is almost impossible to the 
well-nourished person. The well-fed, constantly 
driven horse turns back one ear at the snap of the 
whip. The brain is the most sensitive of all organs 
to the poison of imperfectly digested food or inflamed 
tissues. For modern science makes it clear that it is 
not only possible but probable that decompositions 
may easily go on in the body which yield more or 



S6 THE TOST OF FOOD 

less toxic substances to the circulating- blood. These 
substances do not necessarily kill; like extracted 
alkaloids, they may stimulate the nervous action and 
stimulate beyond the power of nutrition. Wakeful- 
ness, anxiousness, sleeplessness may all be caused by 
mal-nutrition arising from imperfect assimilation of 
abundant food-materials. Digestion in its correct 
<ense only renders the food absorbable. If this pre- 
pared food cannot be taken by the tissues, it may un- 
dergo decomposition and thus become a source of 
danger. The mature person is not dependent upon 
food eaten to-day for to-day's strength. It is yester- 
day's or last week's meal which is held in reserve. 

The warnings of nature pass unheeded, because 
the individual is deaf and blind to them, having 
grown up with the firm belief that it makes no differ- 
ence what, when, or where he eats. Because he still 
takes pleasure in his food, he dismisses the physician 
whom he has called in to prescribe for his stiff joints 
or irregular heart. I well remember with what as- 
tonishment 1 made the discovery that a fancied 
heart-disease which made climbing- stairs distressful 
disappeared before a more abstemious diet, and was, 
therefore, not a sign of breaking- up at fifty — a cor- 
responding relief! 

Personally, I believe a more nearly vegetarian 
diet is better, partly since it gives less chance of 
those inventions of some diabolical cook in past ages, 



FOOD FOR MIDDLE LIFE AND OLD AGE $7 

handed down because of man's sins, the rich gravies 
and sauces with which so many meats are served, and 
partly since the kidneys so frequently show the 
strain of previous excess and are not able to elimin- 
ate so much nitrogen. Again, when food of vege- 
table origin fails to digest, it does not give rise to 
toxines, so far as our present knowledge goes. By 
vegetable food most persons understand white 
bread, potatoes, rice, etc., all starchy foods. These 
are not always well endured, and frequently give rise 
to acid conditions which result in various inflamma- 
tory diseases. Fruits, especially those picked green 
and transported in cold storage, affect some persons 
in the same way. There are, however, abundant ma- 
terials without using an excess of these. It is prob- 
able that about half of the calories, half the starch, 
and two-thirds the proteid that he could well utilize 
at twenty-five or thirty, may fully serve a person at 
sixty. 

Investigations by Forster show the following proportions for 

Proteid, Fat, Carbohydrates, r , 

Grams. Grams. Grams. Calories. 

Old men 92 45 332 2149 

Old women 80 49 266 1875 

As the taste becomes blunted and the circulation 
slows down, smaller quantities may well be supple- 
mented by more frequent eating, as in childhood, 
though for a different reason. 

It would probably answer very well to give the 



88 THE COST OF FOOD 

old and the young the same kinds of food; the old, 
because it furnishes heat which their lack of motion 
makes it difficult to obtain; the young, because it fur- 
nishes heat to use up in mere motion. Both are fond 
of sugar and of fruit. Eggs are good for both, but 
rice for the old must be replaced for the child by 
whole wheat with its ash and phosphates. To the 
aged is permitted the use of stimulants as tea, and 
of blood-vessel extenders as wine, which must be for- 
bidden to the young because they not only do not 
require but are positively injured by such artificial 
excitants. 

Nine out of ten will say that they would rather live 
a shorter time and enjoy the years they have. But 
the pity of it is, they do not enjoy life; they become 
stiff in the joints and irritable in mind, making mis- 
takes in family life and in business, and in their efforts 
to rid themselves of the consequences of folly become 
mentally weakened and too often morally so blinded 
that death seems preferable to life. We are apt to 
think only of the grosser sins as causes of nervous 
depression and mental breakdowns, and to pass by 
the more common sins against the fundamental law 
of life — nutrition. 

As men grow wiser, as they value effective human 
life more nearly as they value a machine, they will 
banish at least one-third cf the concoctions with 
which men are tempted to their undoing. Temper- 



FOOD FOR MIDDLE LIFE AND OLD AGE 89 

ance in eating is quite as necessary as in anything 
else, and with the network of trolley-cars jarring our 
nerves and taking from us the need of exercise, we 
are in danger of becoming very ineffective. 

A great trouble is that we are not willing to con- 
fess to any weakness. We can eat what any one can. 
We can do anything; we Americans are superior to 
laws. We are not growing old. We are afraid of 
thinking about our food. This has a basis of truth. 
Many persons cannot themselves hold a "balance of 
judgment as to what they shall eat without danger 
of diverting the nervous force from its proper work. 

But the greatest danger lies in the credulity which 
still lingers in the public mind, the willingness to try 
any quick and sure remedy. Quack foods are, per- 
haps, more pernicious than quack medicines. Pos- 
sibly the one is the corollary of the other. To one 
who knows anything of the physiological laws of 
nutrition, it is disheartening to hear a group of 
friends in middle life, who are gaining in weight and 
beginning to suffer twinges of rheumatism, discuss- 
ing this or that antiacid medicine ; a special mineral 
water. Each favors a sea voyage to be undertaken at 
great sacrifice, when the remedy is clearly just a little 
self-control, a passing by of a course or two, an absti- 
nence from a few favorite dishes. 



X 

DIETARIES OR KNOWN AMOUNTS OF FOOD: GEN- 
ERAL PRINCIPLES FOR THE GUIDANCE OF 
THE PURVEYOR 

" What strikes us rather as the special evil of the generation 
is an'increase of the force of whim, of the inclination: that is. to 
gratify impulse without reference to old restraints and of a cer- 
tain reaction against goodness because the value placed on it is 
seen to be gathering strength . . . the almost limitless freedom 
which money in large amounts can give." — London Spectator, 
July iqoi. 

The terms diet and dietaries are used, except in 
Chapter VIII, in the sense of daily fare regulated with 
reference to the preservation of health, and not with 
reference to the restoration of health once lost. In 
popular thought, the latter meaning is almost always 
the only one. If one diets, it is because he is ill ; has 
transgressed one or several of the laws of nature and 
must be punished. Therefore any hint of attention 
to dietetics implies putting one's inclinations in 
prison, implies a restriction to which, as free-born 
Americans, we cannot submit. This use of these 
terms must be driven out by education in hygiene in 
the public schools and by the public press. Health, 
and not convalescence, must be the goal of man's 
ambition. 

go 



DIETARIES OR KNOWN AMOUNTS OF FOOD 9 1 

By a dietary, then, we mean that amount and com- 
bination of food which will keep the given person or 
group of persons in full health, if, to begin with, they 
are normal. If they are (as, alas ! too many are) 
abnormal to begin with, then the other or medicinal 
sense has to be mingled with our thought. The re- 
striction in the following chapters is put upon the 
cost of a good and sufficient dietary mainly for well 
persons. 

This item is dwelt upon because so large a propor- 
tion of the average income is spent for food and so 
few providers keep tally of the cost as they buy from 
week to week; that is, of the cost of the nutritive por- 
tion of the food. They may know how much money 
they spend, but not what they obtain for it. 

We base our estimates on what is known as a 
standard dietary; that is, the amount of the different 
foodstuffs which have sufficed for various races, 
families, and individuals under known conditions. 

These foodstuffs, although found in many com- 
binations under numerous forms, are yet very few 
in number and are for the most part capable of ap- 
proximate estimation. 

In each land there are half a dozen foods which 
may be substituted for as many known by different 
names in other lands. Food synonyms, they might 
be termed. 

But many combinations of two or more are more 



92 THE COST OF FOOD 

easily made which may be substituted the one for the 
other, provided only that change of food is not made 
suddenly. Acclimatization consists largely in modi- 
fication of food habits. 

In practice we allow about ten per cent for waste 
in the body through non-assimilation, and if there 
is a liberal diet with much choice of dishes, ten per 
cent more for kitchen- and table-waste. 

For example, if we wish to be sure that our group 
of students really have one hundred grams of proteid 
or of fat in their daily food, we must provide one 
hundred and twenty-five grams of each. 

It should be easy for any one to make out a die- 
tary from Bulletin No. 28, U. S. Office of Experi- 
ment Stations, for any given cost. That is, for the 
raw materials. The science of it — how to cook, 
flavor, and combine them — there is the field for 
fancy, for art, for invention. At present cooking is 
an art, crude and variable, and scientific accuracy 
cannot be demanded of it. Hence the wide margin 
which must be allowed for spoiled and rejected food. 

For this reason, also, no definite menu can be 
given such as is constantly asked for. Because it is 
refused, the whole subject is usually relegated to the 
mental dump-heap. " What is one man's meat is an- 
other man's poison " is yet true, and also that one 
cook can make into delicious, nutritious dishes what 
another would make unfit for civilized man. 



DIETARIES OR KNOWN AMOUNTS OF FOOD 93 

Only the raw food-materials can be treated with 
any degree of accuracy. This degree is surer, within 
a limited range, than was formerly supposed. 
Analyses of various food-materials have now been 
made so abundantly that an average can be drawn 
sufficient for the month or year. One day's ration 
might not be so closely calculated, and it is not need- 
ful that it should be. These analyses are now at the 
service of any one who will take the trouble to study 
them. Until we have on all sides a certain familiarity 
with these exact figures, there will be bandied about 
from household magazine to newspaper assertions 
of facts on the one side and denials on the other 
which destroy the confidence of the public in either. 
For instance, in Boston's most respectable daily 
(The Advertiser) of August 9, 1901, there appeared 
a heading: " Feeding Four on 25 Cents a Day." 
The article began: 

" The usual run of papers in cooking-magazines 
are good, and many of them are excellent, giving 
much-needed information, useful advice, and timely 
facts, but the average paper on economy in feeding 
a household is misleading and sometimes sadly inac- 
curate. 

" For instance, in a leading household magazine 
appeared an article of this sort, in which, among 
other things, it was stated that one woman said it 
was possible to feed a family of four or rive, health- 



94 THE COST OF FOOD 

fully and appetizingly on 25 cents a day. while an- 
other said she could not set an ordinary table under 
50 cents a day. Now the question is, could the 
woman who thought she could feed four or five on 
25 cents a day, and give them sufficient food, do 
9 ;- » 

I do not know what the original article did say. but 
it is probable that the 25 cents per day was for one 
person, not for the four. We are accustomed to 
speak oi the 10-cent, or the J 5 -cent, or the Si-a-day 
dietary, meaning the expense per day for one per- 
son. Here the need for exact and complete state- 
ment i> evident. The newspaper writer was quite 
correct in assuming that for six cents per day per 
person grain mushes must make the bulk oi the foo '.. 
for our lowest allowable sum is ten cents per day pet- 
person. 

The article g< >es 1 >n: 

" And most of these statements won't hold. 
Without wishing too sharply to criticise the state- 
ments of Miss . the teacher oi the ■ 

Cooking-school, it is impossible to accept some of 
her statements. She said: 'Three of the students 
of <mr class were chosen to give a breakfast at grad- 
uation. We were allowed S3 to buy the materials, 
and we had 24 guests. We had the best of every- 
thing, and it cost us just S2.S0. Here is the menu 
we served : 



DIETARIES OR KNOWN AMOUNTS OF FOOD 95 

Strawberries with Cream. 

I [ominy with Cream. 

Broiled Shad French-fried Potatoes 

Sliced Cucumbers Rolls 

Coffee. 

" ' I remember strawberries cost 25 cents a quart, 
and we required three quarts. We served two large 
shad, and $2.80 covered the breakfast, including- the 
smallest details.' 

" Here it is not the cost of the meal that awakens 

surprise, but one of the items. Miss says 

that 24 guests, and presumably the three students 
who got up the breakfast, 27 in all. were served with 
three quarts of strawberries. Will any one who re- 
members what a quart of strawberries shrinks to by 
the time the berries are hulled try to divide it into 
nine portions, and say if the result constitutes what 
any one could conscientiously term a helping of 
strawberries? " 

Here the snapshot of the daily-news purvevor 
needs correcting. A " quart " of strawberries such 
as the writer had in mind which " shrinks," etc., pur- 
chased when the fruit is dear, does not yield much, 
if any, over a pint, but the " quart " of selected native 
berries such as would be used bv these young" cooks 
at this time of year would measure very nearly the 
estimated quantity. Six portions are allowed for a 
quart by the caterers, and in a case like this, where 



9 6 



THE COST OF FO< >D 



economy was enjoined, eight portions to a quart was 
not so very niggardly after all. Just for the amuse- 
ment of it, the author determined the quantities, 
mainly according to Miss Huntington's * estimates 
and the food values of the menu as given. The re- 
sults, shown in the accompanying table, are most in- 
structive and completely vindicate this class-work. 



TABLE VII 

BREAKFAST FOR 24 PERSONS 



Lb. 



Oz. 



7- 



Strawberries, 3 quarts. 

Sugar, 4i lbs 

Hominy. 

Thin cream, 3 cups. . . 

Shad 

French-fried Potatoes — I 4 

Fat 4 

Rolls. 3 doz. home-made. I 4J .. 

Butter for fish and rolls. ' | 12 

Cucumbers 

Coffee 

Sugar, 2 lbs. 4 oz 

Cream, ij cups ..... 



For one person 

The standard ration 



36 
12.8 



Grms. 



22C'4 

2038 
724 

2722 

105 



340 



362 



Cost. 



>o 75 
.225 

•03 

.187 

.72 

.04 

.01 

•15 
.20 

.15 
. 12 

•113 
.093 



Prot. 



46 

18 

390 

3-2 



285 



$2,788 778 



Fat. Carb. 



Cal. 



'4 

27 

134 

130 
1.6 



45 
285.0 



138 
864 
438 
3 2 -5 

272 



1620 
"zS.h 



67 



432 
16.7 



32-4 
33-3 



703 3839 



22.9 
33-3 



160 
140 



775 
3537 
2246 
1460 
2250 
1260 
1042 
8160 
^382 

180 

1768 
73° 



28736 

1 197 
1010 



So that the three little cooks could have made a 
fair breakfast without seriously robbing the guests. 

Since fat and starch or sugar are to a certain ex- 
tent interchangeable, the slight lack in fat is, in our 
dietary, made up in carbohydrates, and since an exact 
division is neither necessary nor desirable, one of the 
other meals could easily remedy any deficiency. 



*The Dietary. See Bibliography. 



DIETARIES OR KNOWN AMOUNTS OF FOOD 97 

This particular case is of no special importance. It 
is given in detail simply because it illustrates so ad- 
mirably the following points, which the author wishes 
to emphasize : 

1st. Popular disbelief in and distrust of the efforts 
made to teach more exact methods in catering. 

2d. Failure on the part of the teachers to bring 
their methods within the comprehension of the aver- 
age reader. 

3d. General ignorance of the nutritive value of 
food materials as purchased. 

4th. Common neglect of the element of waste in 
preparation and in assimilation. 

5th. The results tabulated furnish an illustration of 
one way in which the teaching may be made more 
practical. 



XI 

DIETARIES COSTING FROM TEN TO FIFTEEN 
CENTS PER DAY PER PERSON 

"The Golden Rule is let all men's dinners be according to 
their means." — Hayward. 

The business-man who frequently pays one dollar 
for his luncheon and two dollars for his dinner, and 
who knows that his own table costs him one hun- 
dred dollars a month for a family of three, receives 
with incredulity the statement that ten cents per 
person per day will give, anywhere in America within 
fifty miles of a railroad, sufficient nutrition for a 
wholesome diet. 

The woman who has tried to cut down her ex- 
penses by saving in the food-material purchased 
sighs and shakes her head. Her dictum is final: " It 
cannot be done." 

And yet we know that it can and has been done ; 
that efficient life can be maintained in the case of 
many persons for this sum. It is the will to do it and 
the motive, which sustains the will, that is neces- 
sary. 

Appetite is largely a matter of habit and of mental 

98 



DIETARIES COSTING TEN TO I IKTKKN CENTS 99 

orientation. The man who has his eyes fixed on a 
good for which he is willing" to subordinate every- 
thing else can maintain health without the luxuries 
of the table. He finds that food which will serve him 
best, and is not tempted by that which is useless. 
Alas! how few have the knowledge, the strength of 
purpose, and the healthy body to enable them to do 
this. There is abundant testimony to the clearness 
of brain and strength of muscle gained by living 
' close to nature " on the perfected products of the 
soil. There is also abundant testimony as to failure 
in attempting to do this by persons without the will, 
the knowledge, or the physical stamina to succeed. 

There will, therefore, always be two parties: the 
one small and select, the other large and vociferous; 
the latter claiming that life at less than fifty cents per 
day for food is not worth living. 

It is just as impossible and just as unwise for a per- 
son drunken with beef and highly seasoned food to 
stop short and try to live on shredded wheat and 
milk, as for the toper to change his habits to total 
abstinence. Every cell in the body in either case 
calls out for its accustomed stimulant, and the strug- 
gle is more than sufficient to use up all the energy, 
which the body can develop. 

As a mere matter of scientific fact we must assert 

that, given a normal digestion with the will to do the 

best thing for one's self, it is possible so to select and 
LofC. 



IOO THE COST OF FOOD 

prepare food that it need not cost over ten cents per 
person per day. 

To substantiate this, we offer the following facts: 

First, the staple diet of the world is made np of 
one or more cereals. These furnish an average of 
1600 calories per pound. Two pounds is ample for 
the needs of the workingman at a cost of three to five 
cents. Part of the cereal may be replaced by meat, 
fruit, sugar, milk, and some vegetables, costing, in all, 
six to seven cents; this will lessen the quantity of 
starchy food and increase fat and nitrogen. 

With ten kinds of cereals, ten other foods, and 
forty flavors, hundreds of combinations are possible 
if only any inventive skill were exercised in the pre- 
paration and serving. In this direction the women 
of America are singularly lacking. The same limited 
round of roast, baked, and boiled, is served with the 
same excess of crude flavor week after week, so that 
it is no wonder that variety is constantly called for — - 
variety of badness it is, too, as a rule. 

If we could only apply the same sagacity and busi- 
ness acumen to the food-supply of the young en- 
gineer as we do to his mechanical training! 

But, alas! we have mind as well as matter to deal 
with and, worse than all tradition, the fetish of the 
past. One person likes caraway-seeds, another will 
not eat cookies so flavored, and these small likes and 
dislikes are permitted to overbalance health. 



DIETARIES COSTING TEN TO EIETEEN CENTS IOl 

We take no warning from other animals and from 
plants, all of which fail of their best end when 
overfed. Nature does not make an exception in 
favor of man. The individual may thrive like a forced 
plant, but not so the race. In all the discussion of the 
infertility of the higher branches of the human race, 
how little attention is paid to the weakening effect of 
pampered appetite ! 

We are always asked to give a menu for the use of 
these simple foods. How is it possible when the 
flavor depends on a score of variables — time and de- 
gree of heat in the cooking, amount of water, salt, 
and condiment added, combinations made, when 
acceptability depends quite as much on the way 
the prepared food is served, the company in which it 
is eaten, the temper of the individual at the time of 
eating, as on the food itself ? 

The object of this book is not so much to give in- 
formation as to stimulate research. A more effectual 
preparation of the food-supply must be secured by 
original research. 

Most of the work put upon food preparation at 
present is against rather than for health. " Unfor- 
tunately the practice of cookery does not repose 
upon recognized principles, but on recipes, many of 
which are based upon flagrant error/' * 

* '* The Spirit of Cookery." p. 156. 



102 THE COST OF Fool) 

It is possible that one of the best evidences of a 
development of better " taste " and better ideals in 
art will be found in better furniture and pictures and 
less money spent in crude food. How can we be 
otherwise than materialistic so long as our food is so 
gross and handled in so repulsive a manner? Was 
there ever so barbarous a sight as the modern 
kitchen, with its red-hot range, its perspiring cooks, 
its slovenly maids, its ill-smelling cold storage? 

May I ask each reader to call up in his eye the 
picture which to him is most typical of that for which 
the word food stands? For the city dweller it may 
be a medley of half-clothed, dripping persons, greasy 
dishes and pails of refuse, to the presence of which 
attention is loudly called as one passes the basement 
windows of hotel or restaurant. The most vivid im- 
pression left after a half hour's passage along the 
streets of any down-town section will be that of 
burned fat, hot, steam-carried vapors of indescribable 
sorts. Even worse are the meat-shops, the windows 
displaying in all their repulsive nakedness the crea- 
tures which man kills for his own use — fish, flesh, 
and fowl; even barrels of potatoes, beets, and cab- 
bages, with remains of their recent contact with the 
soil, are not much improvement. What wonder that 
we try to forget the crude materials in French names, 
grotesque shapes, or excessive garnishing. What 
wonder that to be hungry is a rare sensation, that a 



DIETARIES COSTING TEN TO FIFTEEN CENTS IO3 

loathing for food is overcome only by wines and 
spices in good company! What wonder that any 
dark place is held to be good enough to perform the 
rites of transformation for such horrors! 

Even the fresh, juicy fruits with their tempting 
display of color are paraded in line with the clouds' 
of street-dust, and stirred constantly by the ubiqui- 
tous feather duster. 

In the country the gross treatment of food follows 
city ways, and the universal pig evidences the waste 
and failure to provide satisfactory viands. 

All indications point to the low estimation in 
which food and its preparation is now held, in con- 
trast to the time when kings and statesmen were 
proud to have dishes named for them. Is it, then, 
a subject to be shunned? Is it, then, no matter for 
concern what manner of food is offered to the com- 
ing race? Has it no effect on the soul that its outer 
envelope is so vilely treated? A right point of view 
is essential to our discussion, and certain dogmatic 
statements may serve to orient us at the start in 
order that w r e may proceed on harmonious lines. 

Suppose we state it in the form of a creed: 

1. I believe that " man is what he eats "; i.e., that 
the kind of food going to make up the physical body 
reacts upon the nervous system, affecting mind and 
character. 

2. I believe that man is : ' the noblest work of 



104 THE COST OF FOOD 

God " only when he uses his body as a means of ex- 
pression of high ideals, and not as a means of grati- 
fying momentary desires. 

3. I believe that " he that ruleth his own spirit is 
greater than he that taketh a city "; to control one's 
appetite in view of the aims in life which one holds 
up to the inner vision; to so order one's life that one 
has a fair chance of attaining one's ideals is man's 
prerogative, and differentiates him from the beast 
of the field. 

4. I believe that man's efficiency in this world, if 
not his happiness in the next, is mainly due to the 
precautions he takes to use suitable food and to 
avoid dangerous combinations. 

5. I believe that " the duty that lies next " is the 
instruction of all the people in food values and the 
inculcation of a respect for the body and the office of 
food as a means to an end, and that end — the highest 
duty of man. 

6. I believe that temperance in the use of food is 
even more essential than in anything else which 
tempts man's appetite. 

7. I believe that good food habits can be formed 
in childhood which will carry the man through life 
in as great a degree of safety as other good habits 
early formed may do. 

Self-control, self-limiting factors are not suffi- 
ciently taught. In the rage for freedom, for self-ex- 



DIETARIES COSTING TEN TO FIFTEEN CENTS ICK 

pression, many are apt to include Nature's laws 
among the trammels to be thrown off. Such con- 
sider the unrestricted choice of food as freedom. 
The consequences of this freedom are wilfully laid to 
some other door. 

If this kind of rashness killed, it would not so much 
matter; but with philanthropic, sentimental helps at 
hand, life is prolonged to the misery of others, if not 
to the individual suffering. Appetite for liquor is 
guarded against; appetite for sweets, spices, and rich 
food is passed by in the nursery and in school as of 
no moment. The child must eat something, and so 
his crying brings the coveted tidbit of which he 
should never have known the taste. A cultivated 
taste in food is as much or more needed than a cul- 
tivated taste in art. Just as in furnishing a house it 
is not the money spent, but the good taste in the ar- 
rangement of the whole, as well as in the choice of 
the individual articles, so in food for the table it is 
not the amount of money spent, but the sort of ma- 
terial purchased and the way it is treated after it is 
purchased which determines the effectiveness of the 
expenditure. 

How shall we characterize that man who with a 
name to win, a prize to strive for, — it may be a for- 
tune or a reputation, it may be laboratory research or 
exploration, — deliberately cripples himself, imperils 
his usefulness if not his life, brings sadness and care 



io6 



THE COST OF FOOD 



into the lives of those he loves most, yet allows him- 
self to be allured by the pleasures of the palate, or 
even merely ignores the laws of health? 



TABLE IX 

The Thirteen Chief Foods considered as to their 
Nutritive and Economic Values 



06 



Nuts (peanuts, edible portion). 

Sugar (granulated) 

Cornraeal (bolted) 

Wheat flour (roller process). . . 

Rye flour 

Rice 

Legumes (dried) 

Meats (about) 

Fish (fresh) 

Potatoes 

Milk 

Bananas 

Fruit (apples, grapes, etc.) — 



30 



40 



<3 a. 



9.2 



T3 V 



O t> 

u C 

0. 



12.9 

12-5 

12.7 
12.4 

'3-a 

55 

45 

' 7- * 

87 

44-5 

60 



8. 9 

IT. 3 

7' 

7.8 



38.6 



2.2 

1 . 1 

•9 

•4 

T.8 

15 

4 






24.4 

100 

75-i 
74.6 

78-5 

79 

50.1 



■5-3 
5 

«3-7 
12.9 



«j _ 
x> 

U 



2560 
1857 
1655 
1645 
1630 
1630 

>59o 
928 
388 
325 
3 2 5 
290 
285 



Wheat flour at 2 cents per pound 

Cornmeal at 3 

Wheat flour at 4 

Rice at 5 

Potatoes at 1 

Legumes at 8 

Milk at 2 

Potatoes at 2 " " " 

Nuts (kernels) at 16 cents " 

Cheese (American pale) at 14 " 

Fruit at 2 cents per pound 

Milk at 3J (7 cents a qt.) 

Beef (medium fat) at 15 cents (155J bone) 

Beef (sirloin) at 25 cents per pound 

Eggs at 25 cents per dozen 



furnishes ^000 calories for 



3 

5-4 

7.2 

9.2 

9 

15 

18 

t8 

19 
20 
21 
32 

47 
69 
"5 



6 cents. 



It is the boast of civilization that man has con- 
quered the forces of nature, harnessed the lightning, 
etc., but he has done it by learning the laws under 



DIETARIES COSTING TEN TO FIFTEEN CENTS IO7 

which these forces work and adapting his machine to 
those laws, not by running counter to them. And 
yet we see an engineer who understands this full well 
violating every law which Nature has laid down for 
the guidance of man to efficient manhood. Be- 
cause he is not called upon to pay the penalty im- 
mediately, he professes to think there is none. 

So long do folk-lore and tradition persist after 
science has illuminated the page. 

To work up a dietary in any given case, begin with 
the quantities costing ten cents, and substitute from 
the tables, foods of equal physiologic value (so far as 
is known) up to the limit of money in hand. For 
instance: 

DIETARY A 

Cost. 

Cereals (dry) , 1 lb 02 

Meats at 6 to 8c. per lb., ^ lb 04 

Vegetables at ic. per lb., 2 lbs 02 

Dried fruits at 16c. per lb., 1 oz 01 

Sugar, 3 oz., etc 01 

.10 

DIETARY B 

Cost. 

Bread aud other preferred cereals, */£ lb 06 

Meats, 1 lb 25 

Fresh vegetables, 1 lb 08 

Fresh fruit, 1 lb 08 

Sugar, 3 oz., etc 03 

.50 



108 THE COST OF FOOD 

The nearer a vegetarian diet is approached, the 
easier will it be to furnish an inexpensive table, but 
the greater wisdom will be required in choosing both 
the food itself and the manner of preparation. For 
most of the poorer class, it is easier and wiser for the 
mother to go out two or three days in the week to 
earn money with which to supply meat, even if the 
children are left to themselves. This may seem rank 
heresy, but to choose wisely means more knowledge 
than the foreign mother possesses, confronted as she 
is by dozens of foods of which neither she nor her 
grandmother have had that experience which counts 
for knowledge. 

As a matter of practice, it may be interesting to 
see what could be furnished for ten cents by aid 
of vegetarian cook-books and native wit. Any cook- 
ing-class may discover some very appetizing dishes 
to bring down the cost of a fifty-cent menu. Two 
examples will be sufficient to show what possibilities 
lie in this direction. These were taken almost at ran- 
dom from a considerable number. The only con- 
trolling factor was that the dinner should include beef, 
since that meat formed the main dish in the 25-cent, 
50-cent and $1 dietaries, on pages 132, 141, and 142, 
in connection with which these are to be studied. 



DIETARIES COSTING TEN TO FIFTEEN CENTS IO9 

TABLE X 

Dietary No. 1 
for average family of six, 15 cents per person per day 



Lbs. 



Breakfast. 

Baking-powder biscuit. 

Ham (lean) 

Butter 

Potatoes 

Milk for coffee 

Sugar for coffee 



Dinner. 



Beef-shank stew 

Potatoes 

Turnips 

Thickening 

Suet pudding: 

Beef-suet 

i qt. flour 

i cup molasses. . . . 

Soda, sweet sauce. 



Supper. 



Milk, i pint 

Bread (home-made^and butter 
Stewed pears 



Totals: 
Breakfast. 
Dinner... 
Supper.. . 



Tea, ooffee, etc. 



Per person. 



Oz. 



Gms. Cost. 



453 



1 60 
60 



1360 



$0.10 

•15 

.025 

.02 

.01 

.007 



0.312 



>.24 
.01 
.02 
.015 

.03 
.028 



0-373 



0.03 



•045 



o««75 

.312 

•373 
0.175 



0.86 
.04 



0.90 
•15 



Grams. 



Prot. Fat. Carb 



72.2 
81.5 



175-94 



185 
8 

4-5 
7-5 



66 



271 



'5 
61 



80 

176 

271 

80 

537 



168 



53 
•4 
•5 

24.7 



220 
6 



314.6 



18 

126.5 
5 



H9-5 

168 

314.6 

H9-5 

632.1 



io5-3 



447 



138 

8 

60 



653 



69 

28 

53 



428 
"3 

50 



74i 



22.7 
319 
216 



557-7 

653 

74i 

557-7 



i95 l -7 



325-3 



Cal. 



2491 
1123 

333 
650 
122 
246 



4965 



1251 
325 
138 
477 

2040 
2056 

463 
298 



7048 



325 

2734 

962 



4021 

49 6 5 
7048 
4021 



16034 



2672 



453.6 grms = 1 lb. 

1 grm. proteid and carbohydrates = 4.1 calories. 

1 grm. fat = 9.3 calories, i 



no 



THE COST OF FOOD 



TABLE XI 

Dietary No. 2 

for average family of six, 15 cents per person per day 





Lbs. 


Oz. 


Gms. 


Cost. 


Grams, 


Cal. 




Prot. 


Fat. ' 


Carb. 


Breakfast. 
English monkey: 




7 

9 

1 
2 

2 
2 

6 
8 

28 


200 

252 

14 

57 

56 

160 

325 

824 
80 


$0,025 
.02 
.01 
01 
.02 
.01 
.03 

.10 
.04 
.025 




2. t; 


106 

12.6 

1 

8 

225 

426 
161 


1 






8 10 








y ti 34 






14 
6 
6 


19 
5 

7 


1 






J 






95-5 






922.5 


Bread (home-made), 3 loaves, 




78 
18 


8 
70 
16 


2141 






651 








734 






64 
8 
46 
16 J 
16 j 






Dinner. 


0.290 

0.20 
.04 

.05 

•03 
•*3 


151 

346 
20 

25 

6 

55 


M9 5 

154 

142 

2 

x.6 

105 . 5 


940 

378 

4' 

35o 


5677 
2844 






1402 






1614 












420 






2642 












Supper. 

Baking-powder griddle-cakes 
without egg, eaten with 


o.45 

0.08 
.02 

.025 


446 

46.5 
9 
3 


405 

85- 
12 


769 

441 

15 
150 


8922 
2794 


Milk 




12 




208 


Stewed prunes with sugar. . . 




627 












Totals: 


0.125 

0.290 

•45 
.125 


58.5 

I5 1 

446 

58.5 


97-5 

149-5 

405 
97-5 


606 

940 

1 7 6 9 
606 


3' 2 9 

5677 
8922 


















3629 












0.865 
.04 


655-5 
109.2 


652 

108.6 

1 


2315 
386 


18228 














0.905 
•151 


3038 













XII 

TWENTY-FIVE CENTS PER DAY PER PERSON 

A learned French judge, Henrion de Penesey, said to three of 
the most distinguished men of science, the mathematician La- 
place, the chemists Chaptol and Berthollet: "I regard the dis- 
covery of a dish a far more interesting event than the discovery 
of a star, for we have already stars enough, but we can never 
have too many dishes; and I shall not regard the sciences as 
sufficiently honored or adequately represented amongst us until 
I see a cook in the first class of the (French) Institute." 

Twenty-five cents per day per person may be con- 
sidered the cost of the wage-earner's dietary, since 
for an income of $800 to $1000 a year this means for 
the family of three or four adults and four children — 
equivalent to five men as dietaries are reckoned — 
about $450, or 45 to 56 per cent of the total income. 
Statistics show this to be an average the world over. 
Nearly every family has one or more unproductive 
members, and too often some one needing care, so 
that the income must go as far as it can. The 
American wage-earner is not so far wrong in de- 
manding a liberal diet, but he lacks a knowledge of 

cost of nutritive units which would enable him to live 

in 



112 THE COST OF FOOD 

well on his means. He also allows his children to 
acquire habits of indulgence which are not only bad 
for him but for them. 

Several twenty-five cent dietaries are given with 
the conditions under which they were taken, and 
others may be found, especially in Bulletins 29, 32, 46, 
52, 55, 91, U. S. Experiment Stations. A study of 
these will give any one who desires to look into the 
subject a working basis. 

There are two common ways of taking a dietary: 
one, that of taking account of stock in the larder be- 
fore and after, and of all purchases made — the differ- 
ence and sum being the food used ; the other, in ad- 
dition, requires estimation beforehand of what, for 
the given experiment, should be used and the check- 
ing up afterward of the excess or deficit. The latter 
was the method employed in the following problem 
given to the class in dietaries at the School of 
Housekeeping, Boston : After a study of the needs 
of the body in infancy, in school-life, and in active 
work, and after attempts were made to formulate a 
ten-cent dietary on scientific principles in order to 
secure a working basis, the class was required to 
' Make out a week's bill of fare which you yourselves 
will be willing to eat, to cost not over 25 cents per per- 
son daily for raw food-material, and which shall 
furnish, in the week, the right proportion of the 
various food-substances." 



TWENTY-FIVE CENTS PER DAY PER PERSON 1 1 3 

This is not given as a model bill of fare. Indeed, 
it is not possible in the present state of vicious habits 
of eating to give a model menu for as many as six- 
• teen persons, especially women, and more especially 
women students and teachers, which would be ac- 
ceptable to them. 

The provider, after six months of experience, had 
learned what dishes would be tolerated and what 
would be refused, and governed herself accordingly. 
Only two of the victims found any of the meals 
wholly unsatisfactory, and all declared that they 
" bought no more candy than usual," which was very 
gratifying in view of the much greater cost of their 
usual fare. 

Theoretical dietaries are often at fault in endeavor- 
ing to furnish at one meal an exact ratio of the 
various food-elements and an exact fraction of the 
total values. Circumstances govern this to a large 
extent. For instance, one morning after a hearty 
breakfast, the class under experiment went from one 
recitation to another, or with only a laboratory exer- 
cise all the morning. This day a light luncheon of 
easily digestible food was clearly called for if any 
work was to be undertaken in the afternoon. 
Another day the morning had been spent in a field- 
excursion to a spice-mill in a neighboring city in cold, 
windy weather. The luncheon on that day must 
clearly furnish nearly the usual dinner ration. Writ- 



I 14 THE COST OF FOOD 

ing up notes of a visit will not demand as much 
brain-energy as will a study-hour on a new subject. 

Again, a warm, muggy day indicates a lighter 
dinner than a clear, crisp one, while a cold morning 
calls for more butter, cocoa, or some food rich in fat. 

The menu should vary with the season. Even for 
an institution it should be considerably changed four 
times in the year. 

The following results agree very nearly with the 
estimates, showing how closely the student who 
planned the dietary had studied the daily routine and 
how accurately the teachers knew the quantities 
usually consumed. The estimates were made for a 
family of six and multiplied to suit the existing case. 
One or more were absent from some meals, so that 
in order to obtain from these figures an estimate of 
quantity for two persons, one-seventh of the amounts 
may be taken ; for two hearty men, one-sixth. If foi 
the typical family of the statistician, — father, mother, 
and four young children, — two-sevenths should give 
the approximate amount. Substitutes of equal food 
value may, of course, be used wherever preferred. 
Nearly every meat was consumed in larger quantities 
than estimated ; of rice and shredded wheat less was 
used. 

Doubtless the absence of some common dishes is 
due to the preparation of a " black list " in class a 
few days before. 



TWENTY-FIVE CENTS PER DAY PER PERSON' I 15 



MENUS FOR ONE WEEK FOR $0.25 A DAY PER PERSON 

[Family of sixteen — all women students; 2d and 3d week in 
April; Eastern city; season very backward.] 

Breakfast: Cream of wheat, baked beans, brown 
bread, coffee, cocoa, or milk. 

Luncheon : Brown and white bread sandwiches, 
sliced oranges, cake, cocoa. 

Dinner: Soup, saltines, roast fowl (stuffed), 
hominy, cranberries, lettuce salad with 
French dressing, ice-cream, cake. 

Breakfast : One-half shredded-wheat biscuit, boiled 
egg, Graham muffins, apple sauce, 
coffee, cocoa, or milk. 

Luncheon: Hashed chicken on toast, fried hominy, 
cookies, apricots, tea. 

Dinner: Soup with rice, rib-roll roast, Irish pota- 
toes (mashed), tomatoes, lemon jelly 
with bananas and nuts. 

Breakfast: One-half orange, wheat germ, creamed 
codfish, cornmeal muffins, coffee, 
cocoa, or milk. 

Luncheon: Vegetable soup, omelet, brown betty, 
cream. 

Dinner: Split-pea soup, veal roast, Irish potatoes, 
creamed onions, lettuce salad, saltines, 
cottage pudding, chocolate sauce. 

Breakfast: Germea, cream toast, bacon, baked 
apples, coffee, cocoa, or milk. 



Il6 THE COST OF FOOD 

Luncheon: Irish stc.v with dumplings, fruit salad, 
cookies, cocoa. 

Dinner: Chicken soup, roast leg of mutton, pota- 
toes, beets, Norwegian dessert. 

Breakfast: One-half orange, vitos, hash, dry toast, 
coffee, cocoa, or milk. 

Luncheon: Creamed potatoes, sausage, raised rolls, 
nut cake, prunelles, tea. 

Dinner: Soup, chicken-and-veal pie, peas, orange 
salad, saltines, cracker pudding, cream. 

Breakfast : One-half orange, oatmeal, creamed dried 
beef, corn cake, coffee, cocoa, or milk. 

Luncheon : Fish chowder, rice-and-mutton croquettes 
with tomato sauce, salted peanuts, 
dates. 

Dinner: Tomato soup, baked haddock, Holland- 
aise sauce, mashed potatoes, Lima 
beans, lettuce salad, saltines, suet pud- 
ding, lemon sauce. 

Breakfast: One-half orange, pettijohn, fish hash, 
date muffins, cofYee, cocoa, or milk. 

Luncheon: English monkey on toast, vegetable 
salad, baking-powder biscuit, choco- 
late. 

Dinner: Bean soup, Hamburg steak, baked pota- 
toes, carrots and peas, lettuce salad, 
saltines. chocolate pudding with hard 
sauce. 



TWENTY-FIVE CENTS PER DAY PER PERSON I 1 7 



TABLE XII 

FOODSTUFFS ACTUALLY USED IN HOUSE EXPERIMENT 











Grams. 




Food Materials. 


Amount. 


Cost. 








Cal. 














Prot. 


Fat. 


Carb. 




Cereals. 
















9 oz. 


%Q . 03 1 2 


41. 1 


i7-5 


168.6 


1040 


Pettijohn at 13 c. per pound.. . . 


9 oz. 


•073 


21 .3 


5-6 


198 


953 


Wheat germs at 12 c. per pound . . 


9 oz. 


.067 


27 


5-i 


196.8 


953 


Vitos at 12 c. per pound 


9 oz. 


.067 


34-5 


3-6 


192.3 


950 


Cr. of wheat at 13 c. per pound... 


9 oz. 


•073 


26.7 


5-i 


193.8 


952 


Shredded wheat at 10 c. per 














package 


$ oz. 
9 oz. 


.O485 


3.5 


.4 


105 


447 


Ralston B. Food at 12 c. per lb. 


.067 


36 8 


4-3 


191 


974 


Hominy at 3 c. per pound 


1 lb. 


•03 


37-5 


2.7 


357-8 


1650 




|lb. 


.045 
O.52 


18 


.6 


179 
1782.3 


815 




246.5 


44-9 


8734 


Fruits. 
















3 dozen 7 


O.645 


58.4 


9-7 


828.6 


3570 




* " 


.0625 


5-i 


2-5 


91.2 


421 


Apples at $i. 50 per bushel 


9 lbs. 2 oz. 


.27 


12.4 


12.4 


446.3 


2007 


Lemons at 20 c. per dozen 


ii dozen 


•25 


jo. 3 


7-3 


86.8 


407 




Iqt. 


.09 


3 


4-5 


75-6 


321 


Prunelles at 14 c. per pound 
















£lb. 


.07 


10.6 


2.2 


141-5 


645 




fib. 


•IO5 


15.9 


3-3 


212 


968 


Dates at 5 c. per pound 


2 lbs. 4J oz. 


.114 


19.6 


25.8 


729.8 


33°7 


Raisins at 1 1 c. per pound 


5 oz. 


•0343 


3.6 


4.6 


108 


500 


D. currants at 25 c. per pound 


2.\ OZ. 


•039 


1-7 


1.2 


52.7 
2768 


233 




I.6798 


140 


69 


12478 


Sugar. 














Granulated at 5§ c. per pound . . . 
Powdered at 5 lbs. for 83 c 


15 lbs. 95 oz. 
5 oz. 


O.8732 






7064.9 

142 
1190 
1 1 29 


29004 

581 

4882 






.1837 
.0937 

r -!7i3 






5 c. molasses at 30 c. per gallon . 


t 6 b gal. 


39 




4644 




39 




9525-9 


39 11 * 


Flour and Crackers, 














Bread at $4.80 per barrel 


27 lbs. 45 oz. 


0.6692 


1246.3 


135.8 


9337-8 


45"4 


Pastry at $4.75 per barrel 


4 lbs. io£ oz. 


.1127 


259-5 


23.2 


1540.3 


7613 


Cornmeal at 2 c. per pound 


3 lbs. 11 oz. 


.0731 


153-7 


3'-7 


1259.9 


6102 


Graham meal at 3 c. per pound . 


Jib. 


.0225 


45 


7-4 


242.5; 


1253 


Boston crackers at 8 c. per pound 


14$ oz. 


.0725 


45 


24.8 


291.8 


1708 


Saltines at 15 c. per pound 


1 lb. 15 oz. 


.2906 
1.2406 


87 


104 


573 


3684 




1836 


428 


I3 2 45 


6 5474 


Meats and Fish. 
















i 4 | lbs. 


1.8367 


882.6 


787 




10947 




9 lbs. 


•45 


391.2 


216 




3 6 45 


Rib roll at 12^ c. " " 


7 lbs. 


.87: 


620.2 


429.4 




7455 


Ham, steak at n c. per pound . . 


3 lbs. 6 oz. 


.3628 


290.8 


195-9 




3014 


Loin of veal at 13 c. per pound. .. 


4 lbs. 10 oz. 


.6012 


354 


191. 9 




321 1 


Leg of lamb at 13 c. " " 


9 lbs. 1 oz. 


1 .17812 


652.7 


578.3 




7884 


Bacon at 15 c. per pound 


1 lb. 


•IS 


59-8 


280 




2849 


Salt pork at 10 c . per pound 


7* oz. 


•0453 


3-9 


176.9 




1663 


Sausage at 12 c. " " 


2 lbs. 


.24 


117. 7 


400.4 


9-9 


4243 



1 1 8 



THE COST OF FOOD 



TABLE XII— Continued 

FOODSTUFFS ACTUALLY USED IN HOUSE EXPERIMENT 



Food Materials. 


Amount. 


Cost. 


Grams. 


Cal. 


Prot. 


Fat. 


Carb. 


Meats and Fish — Continued. 

Dried beef at 30 c. per pound . . . 
Haddock at 6 c. per pound.. .. 
Fresh cod at 6 c " " 


il lbs. 
8 '• 

4i " 
Mioz. 

27 lbs. 3$ oz. 

2 cans 

3 " 
Iqt. 

13J oz. 
2 lbs. 4J oz. 
2 lbs. &] oz 
2qt. = 3^1bs. 

8J oz. 
15 heads 

n\ oz. 

12 lbs. 4J oz. 
J 84 7 lbs. j 
1 38$ qt. » 
J 3lt lbs. 1 
< «lqt. ) 
5 dozen 

1 lb. 11 oz. 
9 oz. 

6 oz. 
5 oz. 

6| oz. 

7 oz. 
41b. 
1 pt. 
glass 

1 box 2 oz.) 
ij cake 

J bottle 

^ cup (2 oz.) 

2& 'ups 

2 lbs. 73 oz. 

85 oz. 


•3375 
.48 

•255 
.108 


136.5 35.6 
288.0 7.2 
193.4 2.2 

77. Q 1.6 




877 
1320 

813 
490 


I egetables. 
Tomatoes at 8§ c. per can 


6.9197 

o-549 
•'733 
•45 
.045 
.0617 
.0084 
.0725 
. 12 
.0136 

125 
.0617 

2.8043 

3 .0701 
2.31 

■4375 
•85 


4062 

271 .2 

25 

63.5 
130.8 

33-3 
9 3 

16 

20.6 
2.6 

34 

75 


3296 

12.3 
4 

3-5 
8.5 
2.7 
2 

3-4 
»-5 
.2 
6.7 
6 


9 9 

2268.6 

83.4 

172.8 

372.3 

131. 2 

76.5 
102 
122 

15.9 

85 
198 

3637 

1918.4 
76.9 

1994 

186 
33 

219 

51-3 
53-4 

104 


4841 1 

11227 

484 

999 

2112 

467 
365 
5 12 
595 
68 

55i 
"75 


Split pease at 6 c. per quart 

Lima beans (.dry) at -j\ c. per lb. . 

Onions (10=1 qt.) at 60 c. per peck 

Turnip at 2\ c. per pound 


Butter, etc. 
Butter at 25 c. per pound 


681 

55-5 
1266 

42.7 
404.8 


5i 

4723 
'534-7 

3'6-3 
3i6-3 


18043 

44217 

27528 

3435 
4762 


Milk at 6 c. per qt. (i qt. = 2.2 lbs.) 

Cream at 25 c. p.qt.(i qt.=2.i lbs.) 
Eggs at 17 c. per dozen (1=2 oz.) 


Nuts. 

Peanuts (shelled; at 8 c. per lb.. . 
Walnuts " at 44 c. per lb . . 


6.6676 

O.I35 

■2475 


1767 

197. 1 
42 


6889 

294 

'63-5 


79941 

4320 
1856 


Chocolate at 38 c. per pound 

Cocoa (Bensdorf) at 58 c. per lb. . 

Lard at 10 c. per pound 

Beef-suet at 5 c. per pound 

Cheese at 15 c. per pound 

Olive oil at $2.50 per gallon 

Currant jelly at 30 c. per glass. . 

1 

Gelatine at 10 c. per box 

Yeast cake at 2 c. each 

(Heinz) catsup at 20 c. per bottle. 

Vanilla at 4 oz. bottle for 57 c 

Vinegar at 10 c. per quart 

Salt at 18 c. for 20 pounds. ...... 

Baking-powder at $1.90 for 5 lb3.. 


0.3825 

0.1425 
.1812 
.0421 
.0218 

•°5 
•3125 

•15 

0.9002 

O.IO 

.025 

•15 

.285 

.0541 

.0223 

.2018 


239 

27.6 
30.6 

9 
43-5 


457 

82.5 
40.9 
191 

157 
54-2 
481 

1 006 


6176 

1073 

725 

1780 

1549 
685 

4473 


no 


10285 



TWENTY-FIVE CENTS PER DAY PER PERSON 119 
TABLE XII— Continued 

FOODSTUFFS ACTUALLY USED IN HOUSE EXPERIMENT 



Food Materials. 



Soda at 8 c. per i pound 

Mustard at 40 c. per pound 

Red pepper and paprica 

White and black pepper 

Celery-salt at 9 c. per bottle. . . . 
Poultry-dressing at 40 c. per lb . 

Coffee at 36 c. per pound .•. . 

Tea at 80 c. per pound 

Totals -t- 99 

Meals = 297 
2 97 ~+~ 3 = 99 number of days 



3 oz. 
I oz. 
i oz. 
i£ oz. 
i oz. 
I oz. 



( C8| cups) 
1 a lbs. 
1 oz. 







Grams. 


Cost. 








Prot. 


Fat. 


Carb. 


Jo. 01 








• 0125 








.0125 








•045 








.0187 








0.9370 








.72 








•05 








•77 








23-59 
$0,238 


9082 


12221 


33285 


92 


123 


336 



Cal. 



288653 
2915 



The same quantity and quality of food will cost, 
in a small family, twenty-eight to thirty cents. From 
a paper written by the author for the Report of the 
State Board of Health, New Jersey, 1893, entitled, 
" Dietaries for Wage-earners and Their Families," 
the following dietaries and remarks are quoted: 

" In the accompanying tables will be found the 
actual weights of a week's food for four families, se- 
lected from among some fifty, which have been care- 
fully gathered in the past year. These four were 
chosen for the several points they illustrate, as well 
as for the fact that they each closely approximate 
the estimated normal, in spite of the great variety. 
The family chosen for our type consists of the father, 






120 



THE COST OF FOOD 



TABLE XIII 



No. 1 



Beef (stew) . . 
Beef (roast). . 
Beef (corned). 

Mutton 

Sausage 

Haddock 



Total. 



Butter. . . 
Total 



Eggs 
Milk. 



Total, 



Flour 

Oatmeal 

Barley 

Corn-starch 



Total, 



Potatoes. 
Sugar. . . 



Total, 



Cabbage. . 
Onions . . . 
Turnips.. . 
Carrots. . . 
Tomatoes. 



Total. 



Tea 



Total. 
Total. 



Lbs. 
Bought. 



71 
71 



3 M 
2-35 
i-57 
4.71 



4.70 



2.50 
18.00 



14-33 
4.70 

•73 

i-57 



iQ.23 

2-35 



2.15 
1.27 
2.20 
•53 
5-59 



39 



Total 
lbs. 



Cost. 



•345 
.565 
•376 
.188 
.188 
.2S0 



Total 
Cost. 



21.19 



4.70 



20.50 



21.33 



21.53 



II.74 



•39 



101.48 



940 



520 
690 



.420 
.230 
.050 
.080 



550 
,280 



080 
.030 
,040 
,010 
.310 



310 



1.942 



940 



1. 210 



.780 



.830 



470 



310 

.482 



TWENTY-FIVE CENTS PER DAY PER PERSON 121 



TABLE XIII— Continued 



No. 2 



Beefsteak . . . 

Beef 

Veal 

Sheep's liver. 

Ham 

Chicken 

Codfish 

Mackerel. . . . 



Total. 



Bacon. 
Lard . . 
Butter 
Pies... 



Total. 



Eggs. 

Milk.. 

Beans 



Total. 



Flour . . . 
Oatmeal 
Barley. . 
Hominy. 
Rice 



Total 



W. potatoes 
S. potatoes. 

Bread 

Sugar 



Total 



Cabbage. , 
Turnips. . 
Tomatoes 



Total 

Unknown sundries. 

Total 

Total 



jLbs.Bought Totallbs . Costi |TotalC 



1. 51 
1.92 
1.92 
1.20 

5-76 

2.02 

1.44 

.96 



1.92 
1.20 
1.02 
2.16 



1.44 

8.04 

•47 



5.76 

1.44 

.48 

1.92 

3-84 



13.44 
3-36 
1.44 
4.80 



.84 
3.00 
1.80 



16.73 



6.30 



9-95 



13-44 



18.24 



5-64 



74.10 



•336 
.190 
.326 
.096 
.576 
.360 

.144 
.130 



.268 
.120 

.336 
.096 



2.168 



.288 

.307 
.048 



.192 
.048 
.024 
.096 
•307 



.192 

.048 
.072 
.240 



.038 
.048 
.096 



1. 100 



.820 



•643 



.667 



• 552 

.182 

1. 100 

$6.12 



122 



THE COST OF FOOD 



TABLE YAW— Continued 



No. 3 



Beef (neck and shin). 
Porterhouse steak. . . 

Round steak 

Roast rib 

Mutton chop 

Ham 

Bologna sausage.... 
Round veal 



Total 



Lard. . 
Butter. 
Cream . 
Pies. . . 



Total, 



Eggs.- 

Milk... 

Cheese 



Total. 

Flour. . . . 
Total 



Potatoes 

Bread 

Buns 

Ginger cakes. 

Sirup 

Sugar 



Total 



Cabbage 

Green onions 

Dry onions 

Asparagus 

Tomatoes (canned). 

Cucumbers 

Corn (canned) 

Green peas , 



Total 



Lbs. Total 
Bought. lbs. 



2. 5 6 
1.28 
.96: 
3-20 
.64 
.96 
•32 
.96 



.64 

.86 
.64 



10.880 



4.700 



2.5 

9.38 
.64 



15.68 



1 2 . 900 



Cost. 



,128 
I50 
.096 
32o 
.080 
.190 
.030 
.096 



.080 
.820 
.070 
.064 



.310 
270 
IOO 



15.680 



18.OO 

8.90 

.80 

•32 

.96 

6.00 



1 .60 
.12 
.80 
I.08 
1. 14 
1.28 
8.38 
1.74 



380 



Total 
Cost. 



I.092 



I.034 



680 



.380 



• 350 
.450 

076 
.032 
.060 

• 370 



34.980 



8.598 



.089 
.060 
.038 
.096 
.000 
.064 
.076 
.096 



1.338 



579 



TWENTY-FIVE CENTS PER DAY PER PERSON 1 23 



TABLE XIII— Continued 



No. 3— Continued 



I Lbs. 
Bought. 



Total 
lbs. 



Apples [ 2 

Bananas 1 

Strawberries 

Rhubarb 1 

Raisins 1. 

Coffee 

Tea 

Chocolate 

Catsup 

Ginger 



Total 
Total 



Cost. 



096 
096 

147 
030 
060 

220 
l60 

045 
060 
030 



Total 
Cost. 



9.320 
96.758 



•944 
$6.05 



No. 4 



Round steak 

Porterhouse steak. 
Boiled ham 



2.60 
3-90 
1.30 



Total 

Bacon .72 

Salt pork I .65 

Butter 2.60 

Cream. 2.92 



7-SO; 



Total.. 

Eggs 

Milk 

Beans (dry). 



Total. 
Flour. . . . 
Oatmeal. . 



6.89 



I-95I 

19.06 

1.27 



12.74! 
1 -30 



Total 
Potatoes. 
Sugar. . . . 



Total. 
Dry onions. 



18.20 
5 20 



22. 2S 



14.04 



23.40 



i-95 
Corn (canned) I 1.69 



Total I 

Bananas ! 3-9° 

Coffee .65 

Tea .32 

Total 

Total 



3-64 



82.92 



260 
620 j 
390 



130 
078 
780 
270 



1 .270 



1.258 



200 
540 
060 



360 
060 



360 
310 



130 
190 



190 
230 
190 



800 



420 



,670 



.320 

.610 

$5,343 



124 THE COST OF FOOD 

mother, and four children under ten years or two 
under thirteen, the food required being that of three 
grown persons for seven days, or of one person for 
twenty-one days; hence, to find the amount and cost 
for one person, the figures may be divided by twenty- 
one. 

Two of the families lived in Philadelphia and two 
in Chicago. Two of the dietaries were taken in the 
winter, when fruit and vegetables were scarce, and 
two in the spring, when they were plenty. 

In No. 4 the man was away from dinners, and al- 
though due allowance was made in the calculations, 
it is probable that the lower amount of meat in this 
dietary was largely due to this fact. Also, there were 
bought in this week no spices or other condiments. 

The waste was little or nothing in either of these 
families, the house-mother being intelligent and 
painstaking in each case, and in two cases advantage 
was taken of the large market. 

Besides Table XIII, showing in detail the amounts 
and cost of each article, an average has been made up 
and shown in Table XIV. This will give a basis of 
comparison for those who have either a less or a more 
expensive market, or who raise a part of their vege- 
tables. 

In Table XV is given the relative cost of the food- 
substances in per cents. This shows the wide varia- 



TWENTY-FIVE CENTS PER DAY PER PERSON 1 25 

tion possible in order to obtain substantially the same 
results. 

Table XVI shows the number of pounds of food 
purchased per day per person, and the cost per pound 
of this food, as well as the cost per day per person. 

No. 3 is perhaps the best dietary in its variety, its 
full food value, and in the right proportion of the es- 
sential elements. The meat is not excessive, al- 
though a little higher than the generally conceded 
proportion. 

As to the cost of this quantity of nutritive sub- 
stances, we can only say that the average of these 
families is 28.6 cents a day a person, or $2 a week. 
While it is true that a wise woman and a skilful cook 
may make this cost less, yet from the best evidence 
at hand this sum seems a very good average of what 
good living may be obtained for in most parts of the 
United States." 

TABLE XIV 

ESTIMATED AMOUNT AND COST OF ONE WEEK'S PROVISIONS, AN 
AVERAGE DEDUCED FROM THE FOREGOING TABLES 

[The family numbering two adults and four children under 

ten years.] 

Meat 14.15 pounds, at 11. 4 cents a pound ... $1 .61 

Milk, 7 quarts 13.87 " " 3.2 " " 44 

Eggs, 2 dozen 2.50 " "13.0 " " 33 

Butter ... 2.71 " "26.4 " " 72 

Flour and cereals 16.00 " " 3.5 " " 5 6 

Vegetables and fruits 28.70 " " 1.27 " " 33 

Sugar 4.5 " ' k 6 " " 27 

Sundries unclassified — Tea, coffee, pies, cakes, etc., etc 1.73 

$5-99 



126 THE COST OF FOOD 



TABLE XV 

RELATIVE COST OF THE DIFFERENT FOOD-SUBSTANCES 

No. i. No. 2. No. 3. No. 4. 

Meat 30 percent. 35 percent. iS percent. 24 percent* 

Fats 15.0 " 13.0 " 17.0 24 

Eggs and milk. .. 19.0 " 10. o 12.0 15 

Heans and cheese 

Total animal 
substance ..64 58 47 63 

Grains 12 12.0 " 14 8.0 " 

Vegetables... .. 15.0 " 8.0 15.00 " 12.0 " 

Fruits 7'<*> " 3.0 " 

Sugar, tea, coffee, 

etc 9.0 " 22.0 17 14.0 " 

Vegetable 
substance. .36 42 53 37 



Total 100.00 " 100.00 100.00 " 100.00 " 

TABLE XVI 

No. 1. No. 2. No. 3. No. 4. 

Pounds per day per person 4.8 3.5 4.6 3.9 

Cost (cents) per pound 6.4 8.0 6.2 6.4 

Cost (cents) per person per day 31.0 29.0 -29.0 25.4 

From "Food as a Factor in Student-life'' are 
taken examples of six months' accurate records 
(Table XVI I)\ and of the daily accounts which 
enabled them to be so successfully carried out 
(Tables XVI II and XIX): 

Several significant and interesting facts are shown 
by an examination of Table XX, a comparison of a 
wholesome and sufficient dietary of a school in In- 
diana, where 600 students were boarded at $1.40 per 
week, with that of the University of Chicago, where 
106 students were boarded at $3.50 per week. One 
source of advantage on the side of the school is that 
a much larger number of persons are fed and certain 
expenses are proportionately reduced. In the second 



TWENTY-FIVE CENTS PER DAY PER PERSON 12/ 



TABLE XVII 

SUMMARY OF FOOD, MATERIALS, COST, AND COMPOSITION, AT KELLY 
HALL, UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO, OCT. I, 1S93, TO APRIL I, 1894 



I Total 
Pounds. 



Reef 

Other fresh meats 

Ham, etc 

Milk, butter, eggs, sugar, etc. 

Grains 

Potatoes and vegetables 

Fresh fruit 

Dried " 

Cakes, etc 



Coffee, tea 

Sundries and unclassified gro- 
ceries 



10260 

9110 

2277 

39179 

14779 

21399 

12082 

?H3 

39° 

1 19232 



Cost. 



$772 19 

734 79 
249 21 
2015 53 
615 62 
365 06 

3 T 5 03 
187 ig 
100 38 



$5355 00 

147 17 

498 25 

6000 42 



Percent 
Waste. 



12.5 



Proteid 
net. 



1 165 

1027 

367 

1305-8 

1363-3 

281. 1 

107 

35-' 

37-8 

5689.1 



Fat 
net. 



1033 

774 
453-6 
379 r ,-3 
198. 2 

512 

5-7 

!-3 

54-2 



5365-5 



Carb. 
net. 



4997- 
9374 
2764 
1536 
1139. 
141. 



19952.3 



These figures divided by the number of days gives per person per day. 





Pounds 


Cost. 


Proteid, 
Grams. 


Fat, 
Grams. 


Carb., 
Grams. 


Calories 


Nutrients remainingafter allow- 


5 


$25 


126 
108 


131 
102 


402 

381 


3383 
2953 









place, very little service beside student help is fur- 
nished at the school, and a large item of expense is 
thus removed. Another difference is seen in the sub- 
stitution at the school of cheaper foods, such as 
cereals, vegetables, sirup, and butterine, for meat, 
milk, cream, fruits, and other more expensive foods, 
though the actual amount of nourishment furnished 
was practically the same in both cases. 

The ultra-hygienist will at once exclaim over the 
pork products allowed in some of the quoted die- 
taries, but man has not yet discovered any food 



[28 



THE COST OF FOOD 



TABLE XVIII 

ONE DAY'S FOOD, MARCH 17, AT KELLY HALL, UNIVERSITY OF 
CHICAGO, CALCULATED TO SHOW THE AMOUNTS AND PROPOR- 
TIONS OF THE VARIOUS CONSTITUENTS AND THEIR COMPARISON 
WITH THE AVERAGE FOR SIX MONTHS 



Lbs. 



5° 
9° 

45 

4 

77 

3 

192 

13 



9 
50 
7.2 

4 l 

26 

14 

657.2 
76 



581. a 



4-4 



Stew and cold meat 

White potatoes 

Sweet potatoes 

Dried beef 

Flour and grain 

Tapioca 

Milk 

Cream 

Butter 

Sugar 

Prunes 

Oranges, less 10% waste . 
Bananas, " 

Eggs 

Lamb 

Turkey 

Steak - 



(Less turkey, lamb, 
bread left over).. . . 



and 



Divided by 130 

Per person, nutrients. 



Daily average for the 6 
months, nutrients 



c 'v 



34 
11. 5 



3-5 
3 



a 1 

10 
15 



•4 
75 
1.8 

3-7 
12 

83 



<= 2 <o 

u 15 2 



IQ. 

26 



70 

83 

4-7 
3 
■5 
96.5 

65 
1 1 
19.7 






40.4 

.310 

Gms. 

126.5 

108 



o , 

u Z 



7-i 

1.6 

12.5 



6.2 



38.68 
2.06 



36.62 



Gms. 

114. 7 



17.2 
11. 7 



53-9 
2-5 
9.0 



5-o 



119. o 
23.6 



95-4 
•733 

Gms 
332.0 



5 

u 



2946 
2937 



which, for the money, gives the combination of 
flavor and nutritive value of well-cooked ham, bacon, 
and salt pork. Like every other food-substance, its 
source and handling must be satisfactory; but the 
author firmly believes that there is to-day more 
danger from the use of milk than from the use of 
pork products. 



TWENTY-FIVE CENTS PER DAY PER PERSON 1 29 

The method of keeping daily accounts for the pur- 
pose of checking the cost is shown in the following 
table: 

TABLE XIX 

SATURDAY, MARCH 17 

Constants $13 51 

Breakfast : 

1 bunch bananas $1 25 

2.5 dozen oranges (K.) 30 

5 lbs. farinose 22 

Fried potatoes 00 

6 dozen eggs, scrambled (B. and K.). 1 oS 
Beef, frizzled (F.) 00 

15 lbs. potatoes (F.) 19 

3 04 

Ltincheon : 

Irish stew (F. ) $0 00 

Meat in brown gravy (B. and K.). ... 00 

16 loaf cakes 1 28 

60 lbs. sweet potatoes, baked 1 00 

Fruit sauce 00 

2 28 

Dinner : 

9 lbs. potatoes for soup $0 12 

26 " turkey, roast (F.) 2 60 

14" steak (B.) 196 

41" lamb, boiled (K.) 348 

50 " potatoes 63 

3 " boiled hominy 06 

Tapioca pudding (K. and B.) 60 

Lemon sherbet (F.) 80 

Watercress 25 

10 53 

Total for the day $29 36 

If the quantity used is kept down to five or six per 
cent of the total meat and used chiefly in the late 
winter and spring, when the appetite begins to need 
stronger flavors, it will not harm the majority of 



no 



THE COST OF FOOD 



TABLE XX 

COMPARISON OF A SCHOOL DIETARY WITH THE UNIVERSITY OF 

CHICAGO DIETARY 



Beef 

Other meats 

Fish.... 

Flour and grain 

Potatoes 

Vegetables (other than pota- 
toes) 

Beans 

Milk 

Cream 

Sugar 

Sirup 

Butter 

Butterine 

Dried fruits 

Fresh " ) 
Canned " \ 

Sundries 

Tea, coffee 

Cocoa, chocolate 

Eggs and cheese 

Unclassified groceries 



Quantity per Person 
per Day. 



Lbs. 
Indiana. 



.476 



.119 

.785 
I.085 

.490 

•057 
.666 



■ 135 
.095 



119 
171 

259 



.026 



095 



Lbs. 
Chicago. 



.442 
.401 
.052 

•437 
.680 

.219 
.015 
1.295 
. 120 
. 140 
.017 
.089 
.014 
.090 

508 

022 



006 
043 
020 



Percentage of Total 
Cost of EachArticle. 



Per cent 
Indiana. 



17 



067 

•125 
,090 

,05 
00S 
073 



056 
,017 



134 
057 

.070 



,047 



036 



Per cent 
Chicago. 



.128 
.141 
.022 
. TO3 
.036 

.024 
.002 
.108 
.041 
.029 
.006 
.103 
Oil 
.031 

.052 

.OI3 
.025 
.OI3 
,029 
.083 



About 38 per cent of the Chicago Dietary is high-class food; 62 
per cent of 25 cents = 15.5 cents, a price for which common food 
materials may be had. 



healthy persons. Those with delicate digestions will 
avoid these products along with many other things. 

Butterine and oleomargarine will also come in for 
a share of condemnation. It is one of the greatest 
legislative sins of this country that the diet in so 
many State institutions is restricted and made less 



TWENTY-FIVE CENTS PER DAY PER PERSON 131 

effective by the prohibition of the animal fats which 
can be supplied at less cost and in better condition 
than the third- or fourth-rate quality of butter which 
is made to take its place. 

In the low-cost dietaries, dried fruits must be made 
to take the place in a measure of the more expensive 
green garden vegetables. The former can be fur- 
nished for so small a cost that there is no excuse for 
their absence. 

Where there is a large family to be fed, a much 
better dietary can be made if the special preferences 
of members are considered alternately ; also if unex- 
pected variations occur. Curiosity will be stimulated, 
and curiosity is one of the best appetisers. 

Table XXI is to be studied in connection with 
Tables X, XI, XXI, XXII, XXIII and XXIV. It 
may be of assistance to some beginners in dietary 
studies to get a bird's-eye view, as it were, of the 
main facts. The following general statements are 
made for this purpose ; they are not accurate scientific 
calculations. 

In order to secure the necessary fat for the day, 
i lb. of lard, very fat salt pork, suet, butter, or oleo- 
margarine will, approximately, serve. Of shelled wal- 
nuts, peanut butter, chocolate, olive oil, bacon and 
flank of mutton, i lb. will be required. While one 
pound will be needed of ordinary fat meats, sausage, 
ham (if the fat is eaten), of cheese, and doughnuts. 



132 



THE COST OF FOOD 



Of most other foods larger amounts 2, 4, or 6 lbs., 
will be required, so that they cannot be classed as 
especially fat foods. 

TABLE XXI 

Dietary No. :) 

for average family of six, 25 cents per person per day 



Grams. 



Cost. 



Prot. Fat. Carb. 



Breakfast. 



Veal hash 

Corn bread 

Butter 

Coffee, milk, and sugar. 



Dinner. 



So. 34 
.07 
.025 
•045 

$0,480 



Mock duck I 

Beefsteak, 3 lbs $0,495 

Baked cauliflower ; .04 

.02 
.025 
• 115 



Potatoes 

Bread and butter 
Tapioca pudding 



Supper. 

Omelette, 6 eggs 

Baking-powder biscuit 

Butter 

Stewed pears, 2 lbs. . . . 
Sugar 



$0,695 



6) 



£0.10 
. 10 
.02 
.06 
.015 



Per person 



$0,295 
$1,470 
$0,245 



153 
64 



223 



203 
6 
8 

9.8 
45 



271. S 



48 
72 



129 

59 
36 

7 

231 



136 
463 



233 
832 



298 
1.2 

•4 
24 

SO 



373-6 



42 
39 
24 

5 



124 
618.8 



103. 1 



no 

714.6 



119. 1 



Cal. 



2385 
2712 

335 
1018 

6450 



115 
15 
68 

54 
177 



429 



29 

447 



96 
j 20 



692 

1953 

325 



40S0 

97 

315 

494 

1375 



6361 



803 
2491 
223 
470 
492 

4479 
17290 



For the day's ration of carbohydrates no food 
quantity less than I lb. will serve, viz., sugar, candy, 



TWENTY-FIVE CENTS PER DAY PER PERSON 1 3 3 

rice, 1 i of rye, wheat, and corn llour, pearled barley, 
shredded wheat, crackers, dates and raisins, stoned 
prunes and macaroni, ij lbs. of figs, bread, and 
legumes. While of fresh beans, bananas, and pota- 
toes, 4 to 5 lbs. will be needed. For the day's ration 
of nitrogenous food, 1 lb. of peanut butter or of soya 
bean will probably serve, also a variety of dried bone- 
less codfish, but at least ij to i-J lbs. of round of beef 
and other meats, canned salmon, cheese, shelled nuts, 
and dried legumes will be needed if one article only 
is made to furnish the desired quantity. 

Therefore, it will be seen that mixtures of foods 
rich in each constituent must be made in order to 
make a suitable diet: J lb. butter at 7 cents, I J lbs. 
of shredded wheat at 15 cents, 1^ lbs. lean meat of 
chicken at 40 cents, makes 62 cents ; the cost of a 
day's sustenance. 

A food is hardly a cheap food if the daily allow- 
ance of 3000 calories costs over 15 cents, or if it can- 
not be so combined that the total cost is under 20 
cents; 1 lb. eggs at 12 cents, 1^ lbs. wheat flour at 
3 cents meets these conditions. 



XIII 

FORTY TO FIFTY CENTS PER DAY PER PERSON 

"Its character, however, was that it was in season; that it was 
up to its time; that it was in the spirit of the age; that there was 
no pcrruque in its composition, no trace of the wisdom of our 
ancestors in a single dish. Every meat presented its own nat- 
ural aroma, every vegetable its own shade of color." — Lady Mor- 
gan's sketch of a dinner by Carhne at the Baron Rothschild's villa. 

A good way to keep the run of a family dietary is 
to determine the necessary quantities of the articles of 
daily and weekly consumption. These should give J 
the quantity needed at J the total cost, that is, at ten 
to fifteen cents; then add the variety in the variables 
which should not all be " hearty " the same meal ; for 
instance, peas, macaroni, and custard. Sweet des- 
sert is not needed after beets and fried bananas 
served as vegetables. 

To the person making out the bill of fare, the name 
of the food should bring to mind the percentage com- 
position as well as the shape, color, and flavor. 

With an income of $3000 or $3500 per year a 
family of five spending 25 per cent of it on food and 
having occasional guests, as all families should, must 
plan to spend only about forty cents per day per per- 

134 



FORTY TO FIFTY CENTS PER DAY PER PERSON 1 35 

son. This means about $2 per day for the family, or 
$730 per year, with $75 margin for guests and extras. 

This can only be done, without the family knowing 
that they are in any way restricted, by the exercise 
of care and thought, and by a careful watching of 
the markets by the provider. Food purchased in its 
season, when it is cheap because it is abundant, and a 
judicious treatment of inexpensive foods, with small 
amounts only of the dearer ones, will give a surpris- 
ingly good bill of fare. 

Every thoughtful person must have wondered why 
it is that a table d'hote dinner can be served so cheaply. 
It is a common experience to enjoy a well-cooked, 
well-served six-course dinner for fifty or sixty cents, 
whereas if one orders, a la carte, even four courses, 
it is likely to be nearly three times as much. One 
reason for the satisfied feeling with which one not 
only leaves the table but passes the evening is that 
the chefs at the restaurants famous for their table 
d'hote dinners know how to blend flavors and con- 
sistency so as to get the fullest result ; each dish is 
the complement or the background of the next. 
Again, the condiments and sauces are of the savory 
and not of the heavy, irritating kind, which means 
that the cooking is French rather than American. 
The quantities served are just enough and not too 
much ; therefore, nothing is wasted. No allowance 
is made for that setting to one side the barely 



136 THE COST OF FOOD 

tasted dish which is so frequently seen, and which has 
been referred to as so demoralizing. Just this same 
care must be given by the mistress or housekeeper 
to insure living on forty cents a day. It needs only 
a superficial acquaintance with modern kitchens and 
cooks to explain why this figure is so seldom held to. 

In order to bring- out the principles upon which any 
scientific study of costs must be founded, the four 
special dietaries on pages 109, 1 10, 132, 141, are to be 
compared, article by article. The same general plan 
runs through the four. Beef products form the piece 
de resistance for the dinner. In all cases bread, butter, 
milk, sugar, and coffee are given, but the quantities 
vary somewhat, especially those of bread, butter, and 
milk. 

To show more clearly the relation between quanti- 
ties of staple food materials furnished at different 
prices. Table XXII has been prepared. 

It will be seen at a glance that the number of 
ounces of meat and eggs decreases as the price of the 
day's food decreases. The reverse is true in the case 
of cereals and potatoes, with slight variations. For 
7.3 cents, even under the most favorable circum- 
stances of prices and buying, the fat supplied must 
come from the meat, and must be all used. Bread 
and potatoes must make up the bulk of the food. It 
is to be noted that, of the luxuries, only cream and 
fresh fruit are absent from the T5-cent dietary. 



FORTY TO FIFTY CENTS PER DAY PER PERSON 1 37 

TABLE XXII 

FOOD MATERIAL, QUANTITY FURNISHED AT VARIOUS PRICES PER 

PERSON PER DAY 



Foodstuffs 



Meat and fish. 

Eggs 

Cheese 

Cream 

Milk 



Butter, lard, etc.; pork... 
Flour, cornmeal, crackers 



Oatmeal, hominy, rice 
Pease, beans, dried.. . . 



Sugar 

Dried fruits. 
Fresh fruit. 
Potatoes. . . . 



Fresh vegetables. 
Molasses 



Cost 



Si. 



oz. 

25-3 
4-3 



8.0 
4.0 



3-o 
6.1 



50 cts. 25 cts. 



oz. oz. 

17-6 13-3 
3.0 2.66 

•5 

2-3 
4.0 



1-5 

5-o 



i-5 



4.0 



1 .0 



19 



1.36 

7-7 



0.5 



•4 
1-7 



15 cts. 
No. 2. 



7.3 cts. 



OZ. 
12 



4-5 



2. 1 
6.5 



2.5 



12.5 
4-3 



10.6 
o. 1 



5-0 

13-3 



5-3 
S.o 



1.6 
1.0 



2.0 



1— 

5-3 



oz. 



i 10.2 
17 .01 
3 



2.8 



24.06 



o.34 
i-34 



15.64 



6-33 
4.76 



The dietary belonging with this section will be 
found on page 141. 



XIV 

SIXTY CENTS PER DAY PER PERSON; INCOME, $5000 

" The pleasure of eating is common to us with animals; it 
merely supposes hunger and that which is necessary to satisfy it. 
The pleasure of the tabic is peculiar to the human species; it 
supposes antecedent attention to the preparation of the repast. 
. . . Dishes have been invented so attractive that they unceas- 
ingly renew the appetite, and which arc at the same time so light 
that they flatter the palate without loading the stomach." 

— Havward. 

If twenty-five or thirty cents is enough, how is it 
that double the amount is the rule? Even on an in- 
come of $3000? There are several very evident rea- 
sons: 

1. Waste. 

2. Hothouse, out-of-season products. 

3. Rare foods, of which there are not enough to 
go around. 

4. Perishable food. 

5. Fads, fashion in dishes. 

6. Flavors, derived from expensive materials. 
Are we any better mentally or physically for these 

flavors and stimulants? Is life more wholesome, 

more efficient/ Efficiency is the key to the whole. 

A large item of expense in small households is the 

138 



SIXTY CENTS PER DAY PER PERSON 1 39 

maid's table. If it is difficult to keep down the cost 
in an institution where a separate meal is prepared, 
how much more difficult when the same food serves 
for both family and maid, and when the least curtail- 
ment in the kitchen is a signal for a change in ser- 
vants! The cook does not count the potatoes, nor 
measure the strawberries, as the pioneer housekeeper 
did ; neither does she save the cold potato and the 
ends of the steak for hash, as New England thrift de- 
manded. The moral effect of this lax lavishness upon 
these inmates of our kitchens is a worse feature than 
the mere waste of money. What will happen when 
they marry and have homes of their own and have 
only $800 a year, or less, for everything? Have we no 
responsibility toward those we employ and whose 
tastes and habits we form? 

Even the busy woman, if once she gave time to 
starting her accounts properly and if once she had 
conquered the A-B-C of dietaries, could keep a fair 
oversight over her expenses without going to market 
or examining the ice-box. 

If sixty cents a day furnishes all that the most fas- 
tidious person can require, how is it that $1 and even 
$1.50 per day is ever spent on raw food? It can be 
done only by using the most out-of-season deli- 
cacies, such as strawberries in January, or rare 
dishes as terrapin, choice game, etc. Of course, 
condiments and wines can easily bring up the ex- 



I40 THE COST OF FOOD 

pense, as they do at banquets where $10 and $20 per 
plate may be charged, but we are speaking of food. 

" It is one of the evils of the present day that 
everybody strives after the same dull style. ... I 
will observe that I think the affluent would render 
themselves and their country an essential service if 
they were to fall into the simple, refined style of liv- 
ing, discarding everything incompatible with real en- 
joyment." — Walker in The Original, 1835. 

This hypersesthetic sense as to the furnishing of 
I lie table is not to be imitated by the sensible young 
men and young women for whom this little book is 
written. They mean to make themselves of use in 
the world, to be strong men and women with clear 
heads and happy hearts, and they know that un- 
natural greenhouse-grown fruits and vegetables lack 
the Ralstonite's "glame," the vivified essence of air 
and sun which does bring to the body its own spirit 
of the universal power. 

There is more in life than meat. " He that ruleth 
his appetite is greater than he that buildeth a great 
market." 

In order to bring out more clearly the relation 
(or, rather, the non-relation) of food value to cost, 
the dietary illustrative of this section is flanked by 
one belonging to the preceding chapter, and may 
be compared with the 15-cent dietary. No. 2, p. no. 



SIXTY CENTS PER DAY PER PERSON 



141 



TABLE XXIII 

Dietary No. 4 

50 cents per person per day 



Breakfast. 



Cream of wheat 

Thin cream 

Eggs (9) 

Ham 

Toast (1 loaf) — 

Butter 

Coffee 

Sugar 

Cream (thin) . .. 



Luncheon. 



Chicken, fowl — 
" creamed. 

Potato chips 

Asparagus salad . 
French dressing. . 

Bread 

Tea 

Sugar 



Dinner. 



Salmon (broiled) 

Pease with butter 

Bread for the whole meal 

Beef (rib roast) 

Potatoes 

Tomatoes (stuffed) 

Lettuce and cucumbers... 

French dressing 

Saltines 

Cheese 

Coffee and sugar 

Relishes and garnishes — 



Total 

For one person 



Lbs. 



Oz. 



Gms. 



127 



340 
80 
60 



400 



Grams. 



Cost. 







Prot. 


Fat. 


$0.02 


13 


2-5 


.07 


3 1 


32.0 




24 


60 


47 




13 


48.3 


114 




05 


39 


4 




08 


2 


70 




025 








007 
035 








2 


15 


0.657 


167 


284.5 


0.30 


134 


10 


.028 


8-5 


23 


•05 


17 


80 


• 30 


16 


1.8 


.08 




120.2 


.02 


19 


3 


.03 






.007 










0.815 


194-5 


238.0 


0.30 


108 


IOI 


.085 


10 


I2 -5 


.04 


38 


6 


.60 


182 


200 


.02 


.8 


•4 


.067 


20 


37-3 








.08 




120 


.025 


2.9 


.2 


.03 


24 


30 


.032 

•'5 










1.529 


385-7 


507-4 


$3,001 


747.2 


1029.9 




50 


124.5 


171 .6 



Cal. 



96.6 

3-3 



2, 3 



60 



375 



19-3 
"5 
30 



60 



332-3 



44 
216 



68 
125 
14.3 



24 
2 

60 



553-3 
1260.6 



472 

309 

836 

1250 

1070 

651 

246 



5M4 

650 

300 
1290 

210 
1118 

544 

246 



4358 



1368 

316 

1088 

2613 

3*5 

784 

77 

1118 

110 

385 
246 



17922 
2987 



142 



THE COST OF FOOD 



TABLE XXIV 

Dietary No. 5 

sl.oo per person per day 



Breakfast. 



Strawberries 

Sugar 

Cream of wheat 

Cream 

Eggs (9) 

French rolls (1 dozen). 

Butter 

Coffee 

Sugar 

Thick cream 



Luncheon. 



Chicken (broiled) 

Butter, 2 tbs.* 

Potato chips. 

Cold asparagus (salad) 

French dressing Q cup of oil) 

Bread 

Tea 

Sugar 

Cherries 

Gingerbread (thin * . 



Dinner. 



Tomato soup 

Halibut, creamed 

Bread for the whole dinner .. 

Filet of beef, piquant sauce. . 

Potatoes 

New beets 

Sweetbread and cucumber 
salad (No. 30), mayonnaise 
dressing 

Sahines 

Cafe" parfait (home-made)., 

Lady-fingers 

Coffee 

Sugar . . 

Olives, relishes, garnishes,etc 



Total. 



Per person. 



Less 15 per cent of waste oil, 
fat, and sugar — on plates, 
in coffee, etc 



Lbs. 



4 
o-5 



3 

i 

o-5 



Oz. 



5-6 



x -i 



Gms. 



159 

127 

230 

505 

453 

84 

28. 

60 



28 



453 
250 



28 
4 



Cost, 



• 40 
.018 



.24 



.007 
•075 



'•'75 



.05 
• i° 
.08 
.03 

•03 
.007 
. 10 
.04 



1.642 



.10 
.278 
.02 
i.oo 
.02 
. 10 



■73 
.025 

•475 
•05 
• 025 
.007 
•35 



Grams. 



Prot. Fat. Carb 



3. IS 
6.00 
1. 00 



13 

6 
60 
44 



»-5 
61 

47 
24 

7- 



3»-5 



146 



268 



«7 
16 



*9 



245 



20 

24 
80 

1.8 
120.2 

3 



16 



J-' 



336 281 



62.2 

76.4 
19 
234 
.8 
4.8 



43 
3 

252 



79 


194 


2.9 




12 


122 


7 


11 







498 



163 



M 



139 



635.8 

1161.8 
193.6 

29 



159 
96.6 

6-5 



260 



60 

3-3 



Cal. 



465 
652 
472 
618 
836 
1465 
700 

246 
309 



668.4 5763 



MS 1 
29.9 



108 



1300 
224 

1290 
210 

1118 
544 



60 1 246 

66 260 

124 ; 852 



503 



50.8 

23-3 
108 



68 
17.4 



i7-5 
24 
214 

80 



60 



6044 



370 

765 

544 

3300 

3i5 
170 



2030 
no 

1956 
457 

246 



663.0 10263 

1834.4 22070 

305.7 3678 



46 



552 



164 



2 59 



3126 



* tbs. = tablespoonful. 



XV 



THE DIETARY COMPUTER 

" The objects of cookery are the preparation of food in such a 
manner that men shall derive the greatest nutritive and aesthetical 
advantages from its consumption." — " Spirit of Cookery." p. 3. 

" Every bill of fare must be the result of the concurrence of 
all kinds of practical considerations, and should never be a theo- 
retical prescription culled from lists." — Thudichum. 

So much difficulty has been found in the practical 
use of the figures giving composition and value of 
food that the author has attempted to simplify one 
part of the work in the following manner — some- 
what after a dissected-map puzzle: 

1st. Make a list of common food-materials with all 
the facts needed on one line. This list may be in a 
book or on sheets, or each substance may be on a 
slip by itself, and the slips kept in a box with those 
carrying the fractions next to be described. 

2d. Go through the common recipes in use, and 

write the facts about each ingredient on a slip of the 

same length as the first. If it is a complicated recipe, 

it will be well to have also a slip with the totals for 

the dish (Exhibit A). When a number of these slips 

have been prepared, proceed to plan a breakfast, 

143 



i 4 4 



THE COST OF FOOD 



dinner, and supper or luncheon which shall consist 
of the dishes dissected and which shall yield the 
standard amounts of the different ingredients. This 
is shown by placing these prepared slips on a card, 
with a rubber band on either side to hold them, in 
the order of the menu and adding up the figures. If 
the first combination does not give the desired re- 
sult, rearrange the slips until one does. The fol- 
lowing example will illustrate: 



TABLE XXV 
Exhibit A 

DATA FOR AND COMPUTATION OF A DISH 



i. Veal 

2. Potatoes. 

3. Fat 



Veal hash : 

Veal 

Potatoes 

Fat 

Salt, pepper, etc. 

Total for 6 persons. 



Lbs. Grms. 



453 

453 

14 



56 



Cost. 



Prot.. 
Grms. 



&0.30 
.04 

.01 

.005 



$0,355 



68 



136 
17 



i53 



Fat. 

Grms. 



40 
0.5 



So 



48 



129 



Carb., 
Grms. 



'8 



136 



136 



Calories 



65 1 
308 
in. 6 



1302 
636 
445 



2383 



A family of six is to have a breakfast of cream of 
wheat with cream, bananas, boiled eggs, and rolls. 
First we need to know the weight of each ingredient 
to be used, the ounces and pounds of the cereal, fruit, 
eggs, and cream, and from the values of the pound 
of each the other figures may be derived. (See p. 
27.) Eight ounces is J of a pound, but the quanti- 
ties are so small that most inconvenient and confus- 
ing: fractions would ensue if the results were ex- 



THE DIETARY COMPUTER 145 

pressed in 1-7, 1-16, 1-64 of an ounce. All scientific 
dietary work is expressed in grams. This unit is 
only 1-28 as large, and the decimal system renders 
the computation much simpler, as will be seen (Ex- 
hibit B). 

3d. A card * has been prepared with spaces into 
which to slide the slips to hold them firmly in one's 
lap while playing the game. On this card is printed 
the estimated amounts for each meal : 

_ . Prot., Fat, Carb., r . 

For six persons. Grms Grms Grms Cal. 

The breakfast should yield.. . 200 260 650 5500 
" dinner " "... 300 300 750 7500 

" supper " "... 100 120 500 3500 

The figures for breakfast and supper are inter- 
changeable. Either may be used for luncheon. 

4th. The list and slips once prepared, a little prac- 
tice will make any one proficient in calculating the 
daily dietary according to cost and also according 
to food values. A luncheon like the following is not 
uncommon (Exhibit C), and there is no way of 
checking it up if the food value is unknown. Again, 
while most cooks object to being asked to learn a 
lot of figures, it will be found that the use of these 
simple rules will soon teach food values, as well as 
economy, and greater respect will be developed for 
some now neglected materials. 



* Copyrighted under the name " The Dietary Computer." 



146 



THE COST OF FOOD 



It will be a simple matter to evolve any given die- 
tary according to a stated cost, once the quantities 



TABLE XXVI 
Exhibit B 

COMPUTATION FOR ONE MEAL 



Cream of wheat. . . 

Cream 

5 bananas 

9 eggs 

hrench rolls, 1 lb. 

Butter, 3 oz 

Coffee, 1 oz 

Sugar, 2 oz 

Thick cream, 4 oz. 



Grms. 



127 

230 



400 

453 

84 



For one person. 



Average 

Estimated need 



60 
"3 



Cost. 



$0.02 
.125 
.06 
•'5 



.025 
.007 
.063 



So. 69 
$0,115 



Prot., Fat, Carb. 
Grms. 1 Grms. 1 Grms. 



'3 
6 

4-3 
60 

44 
8 



138.3 



23 



2-5 
61 
21 
46 

24 
72 



30.5 



257 



30 



96.6 

76 



a 60 



60 
3-3 



502.4 

83.7 
83 



Cal. 



472 
618 
349 
775 
1465 
700 

246 

309 

4934 

822 
701 



1 pound = 453.6 grams. 
1/10 pound = 45 3 " 
1/16 pound = 28.3 " 
One divisor is used for the whole series of facts. 



TABLE XXVII 
Exhibit C 

LUNCHEON FOR SIX PERSONS 



Chops 

Potatoes (baked, £ waste). 
Bread and butter 



Oranges 
Sugar.. . 



Total. 



Grms. 



560 

453 

50 

1360 
112. 5 



Cost. 



$0.48 
.015 

.04 
.09 
.015 

0.64 



Divided by six = I o. 106 

Standard for light luncheon 



Prot., 
Grms. 



75-5 
5-5 



5 
8.1 



94.1 



Fat, Carb., 
Grms. Grtus. 



160 



15 7 
20 




28.8 
30 



47-5 

27 
97.6 

112.5 

284.6 



47-4 



Cal. 



1801 
210 

247 

445 

461 

3'64 



524 
701 



This difference may seem small, but it means in many cases the difference be- 
tween an efficient day's work and wasted time, or if the work is forced, a strain 
from which recovery may be slow. 



THE DIETARY COMPUTER 1 47 

of each substance needed for a meal are determined. 
Right here is the weak point of all our cook-books 
and all our household accounts. The quantity of a 
dish used by any given family will depend upon how 
many other things are served at the same meal, upon 
the age, taste, and appetite of the members of the 
family, but in each case a fair idea may be gained after 
a little experience if one knows in the first place how 
much is taken. 

The recipes from which are calculated the dishes 
used in the illustrative menus were culled from 
many cook-books and were chosen in preference to 
others because these gave quantities. " A piece of 
leg of lamb," " rolled bread-crumbs," " a few pieces 
of toast," " a little butter," is not sufficiently definite 
as a basis upon which to build a scientific ration. 

Each combination must be tried, and, if accurate 
records are kept, variations will be easy. The or- 
dinary housewife is as afraid of figures as if she had 
never been to school; pencil and paper should be 
constant companions. 

On page 142 will be found what I am sure will 
be considered a typical menu, worked out in de- 
tail. One of the first things to be noticed is the num- 
ber and variety of materials used and the number 
of combinations made. It would be interesting to 
know the time which would be expended in prepar- 
ing and serving such a day's food to a family of six. 



I48 THE COST OF FOOD 

Another noticeable fact is the amount of fat which is 
frequently in such form as to escape consumption. 
The author has more than once called attention to 
the loss of fat in American food as a reason for the 
apparent excess in the computations. In the menu 
under consideration, three times is fat served in such 
a manner that it is safe to say that one-half of it is 
not eaten. The French dressing- and the mayonnaise 
dressing share the same fate as the butter on the 
broiled chicken, so that out of the reckoned total 
of 1 164 grams of fat, at least 175 grams ought 
to be deducted as tributary to the grease-trap. 

This shows that the author's bete noire — the drawn 
butter, mayonnaise, and white sauces so much used 
in modern cooking — are responsible for the excess 
of fat material, as well as for some of the excess of 
cost. In this menu, the butter used in cooking is 
158 grams as against 84 grams on bread. 

The proportion of starch to sugar is 817 to 726 
grams, which goes far toward substantiating Prof. 
Patten's charge already referred to (page 5) ; it also 
indicates the tendency of modern diet. 

As to the cost of this menu, it will be seen that 
three things are responsible, each quite unnecessary 
and each of rather low food value. If the student 
will compare it with the 50-cent dietary on page 141, 
he will see that all the reasons for high cost may be 
found in the list on page 138. If, further, he will study 



THE DIETARY COMPUTER 149 

carefully the various dietaries given, he will see 
that the essentials of living are pretty much the 
same whether they cost $1 or 10 cents; that the 
waste is very much greater when twelve things are 
served for a meal than when four suffice; that it is 
far more difficult to calculate exact amounts for so 
many things, and that small quantities cannot be 
used to advantage. For instance, a quarter of a loaf 
of bread left over is used for toast or bread-crumbs, 
but two pieces of toast with asparagus, or two rolls, 
are not available. A leg of the broiled chicken or 
two stuffed tomatoes are not worth saving, but a 
portion of rice or beans is always usable in the next 
day's cooking. It is in the matter of the garbage- 
pail that most of our economy will come when the 
mistress herself attends to the food, and when true 
refinement of living takes the place of the present 
barbarous feeding. 

The simplicity of the 15-cent dietary need not 
mean monotony. There are as many standard 
flavors at the command of the one cook as of the 
other, only the time of using them may be different, 
as in the case of strawberries and other fruits. The 
family who counts its pennies need not be deprived 
of the taste of these if it chooses the right time. 
Ginger, pepper, vanilla, onion, and celery are com- 
mon property. Chicken and turkey at ten cents are 
within the reach of every one. On our list only 



150 THE COST OF FOOD 

cream, tenderloin, and sweetbreads belong" to the 
really expensive class, as would wine, if it were used 
in flavoring. 

Surely life may be made worth living without 
these, and it is only when one has to allow barely 15 
cents per day per person that they need to be wholly 
banished. Much misconception will be done away 
with when a study of these matters becomes either 
fashionable or compulsory. 



GLOSSARY OF TERMS 

Absorption. The process of conveying the digested, i.e., dis- 
solved and dissolvable substances to the tissues. There are two 
routes: one quick, to the blood direct via the liver; the other 
slow, by the lacteals and lymph circulation. 

Albuminoids. Derivatives from albumen or allied substances 
are nitrogenous foods of lesser value because derivatives, and 
therefore a step lower in the scale. Gelatine is a familiar ex- 
ample. These are not found in quantity in natural food-products, 
but occur in cooked foods. 

Anabolism. See Assimilation and Metabolism. 

Assimilation. See Nutrition for its broad meaning. " In a nar- 
rower sense it is limited to the synthetic conversion of dead mat- 
ter into living protoplasm; that is, anabolism in opposition to 
katabolism, or disassimilation, the changes leading to the de- 
struction of the complex substances of living molecules." 

— Howell. 

Calories. Heat units in foods used as a measure of their en- 
ergy-giving power. As used in dietaries, I Calorie is that amount 
of heat which will raise the temperature of I kilo of water i° 
C. i gram of proteid or carbohydrate is estimated to yield 4.1 
Calories; 1 gram of fat, 9.3 Calories. 

Carbohydrates. The term used for sugars, starches, gums, etc. 
They contain no nitrogen. The term is a convenient one, since 
it signifies that the per cent of carbon alone is available for 
heat- or energy-giving, the hydrogen which the analysis shows 
being only sufficient to combine with tha oxygen present in the 
molecule. 

Cellulose. (C6Hi O 5 )n forms the cell-wall of the plant as 
collagen or connective tissue forms the cell-wall of the animal. 
Only young and tender cellulose, as in lettuce, young peas and 
green corn is digested in the human stomach as a rule. By 
chemical means it can be converted into a sugar. 

151 



I52 THE COST OF FOOD 

Collagen. The chief constituent of the fibres of connective tis- 
sue, of the organic matter of bone (ossein), and likewise one 
of the constituents of cartilage. On boiling with water it forms 
gelatine. 

Cookery is " the adaptation to the purpose of nutrition of nat- 
ural food-products, which by themselves and in their original 
state would be either indigestible and unwholesome or unat- 
tractive and injurious to man." — Thudichum. 

Digestion in its narrower sense means the solution of solids 
and the slight changes which some foods need (a rearrangement 
of the molecules for the most part) to render them capable 
of passing through the membranes into the blood-current by 
which they are carried to all parts of the body. Digestion is 
sometimes used broadly to cover absorption and assimilation. 

Enzymes. " Products of living protoplasm capable of inducing 
changes in complex molecules, either favorable or unfavorable 
to further nutrition." — Green. 

Fats. In food work includes all oils, as olive oil, corn oil, and 
the oils in asparagus, onions, etc., beside the animal fats, both 
solid and liquid. Sometimes the term hydrocarbon is used to 
mean that in these substances, unlike the carbohydrates, a por- 
tion of the hydrogen is available for energy and heat-giving; 
and since a pound of hydrogen gives four times as much heat 
when burned with oxygen as does carbon, it is evident why fats 
are worth more in the diet. 

Fermentation. " The decomposition of complex-organic ma- 
terials into substances of simpler composition by the agency of 
protoplasm itself or of a secretion prepared by it." 

— J. Reynolds Green, p. 9. 
Acid = resulting in an acid liquid. 
Alkaline = resulting in an alkaline liquid. 

Food. " What we eat and drink for the purpose of nourishing 
our bodies." — Howell, p. 213. 

Foodstuffs. " Alimentary principles, as albuminoids, pro- 
teids. fats, carbohydrates, mineral salts, water, often called nu- 
trients." — Howell. 

Good Food, or not. The four tests: 

" 1. Chemical: What percentage of each nutritive constituent 
does the food contain? 

"2. Physical: How much potential energy is it capable of 
yielding? 

"3. Physiological: How does it behave in the stomach and in- 



GLOSSARY OF TERMS I 53 

testines? Is it easily digested, and to what extent is it ab- 
sorbed? 

"4. Economic: Are the nutritive constituents which the food 
contains obtained at a reasonable cost?" — Hutchison, p. 4. 

Hydrocarbons. See Fats. 

Indigestible. " By this term, as popularly and carelessly used, 
is meant a food which by remaining" long in the stomach may 
produce heaviness, fullness, or even pain. By this term the 
physiologist means that substance which will not be so changed 
as to be perfectly absorbed into the blood." — Hutchison. 

Katabolism. See Assimilation and Metabolism. 

Metabolism. The cycle including both anabolism, the syn- 
thetic building up of tissue, and katabolism, the breaking down 
of that which has been formed. In other words, the chemical 
process of living. 

Nutrients. See Foodstuffs. 

Nutrition. " The power of converting dead food-material into 
living substance." — Howell, p. 18. 

" By this term we designate the series of changes through 
which dead matter is received into the structure of living sub- 
stance. In its broadest sense it may cover the processes of di- 
gestion, respiration, absorption, and excretion." 

— Howell, p. 9. 

Proteid. " Protein," nitrogenous foodstuff. This furnishes 
the new material to take the place of the worn-out and used-up 
parts which are the life. Therefore food must contain this nitro- 
genous material not in the form of the broken-down substance, 
as urea or the mineralized ammonia, but in such form that it 
can be used to make new protoplasm. No one name can defi- 
nitely express the great variety of compounds containing nitro- 
gen, albumin, casein, gluten, with their derivatives. 

Protoplasm. " An arrangement of materials in a living cell in 
such a manner that continued life is possible. A convenient ab- 
breviation for ' mass of living matter.' It means any part of a 
cell which shows the properties of life." — Howell, p. 17. 

Ptomaines. Putrefactive products of animal substance which 
give the reactions of vegetable alkaloids. See Toxines. 

Ration (the daily). Often used as equivalent to the daily die- 
tary. It means that which is served out rather than what is 
selected by choice. 

Starch is a general term for a variety of stored products of 
vegetable activity which can, under the influence of moisture 



154 THE COST OF FOOD 

and ferments, yield sugar in a short time. It is the reserve food 
of both plant and animal, dry, portable, and cheap. Animal 
starch, the day's reserve food we all carry, is called glycogen. 

Toxines. Poisonous proteids produced by bacterial action. 
All toxines are not ptomaines, although the latter are toxines. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 



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155 



156 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

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INDEX 



PAGE 

Air in school-room 29, 31, 34 

Appetite 5. 6. 3°. 73, 9 8 

Bachelor, why he boards 59 

Bibliography I55-I57 

Bill of fare for child 26 

for school 42,43 

" " " for breakfast 95"97 

" " " for 25-cents 115, 116 

Brain-worker, food of 50 

Cheap food 2, 5, 8, 100 

College, duty of 49 

Cost of food, factors in 7, 8 

(See Food, cost of.) 

Dietary computer I43 -I 50 

Diet, dietary .26, 28, 39, 72, 77, 100, 107 

" definition of 9°. 9 1 

Dietaries of definite cost 9S-142 

10 to 15-cent 109, no 

25 cent H7-I3 2 

50 cent 14 1 

$100 142 

' tabular statements. 107, 109, no, 117-123, 126-128, 

130, 132, 137, 141, 142, 144. Mo 

Definitions. See Glossary 151-154 

" Diet, dietary 9°. 9 1 

Eggs as food 22, 23, 25 

Food, amounts of 19, 20, 39, 69, 87 

cheap 2,5,8,100 

" definition of 13, 14 

159 



l6o INDEX 

FAGR 

Food, choice of , . 3 

cost of, 7, S, g, 34, 37, 40, 41 1 51, 56, 6t, 62, 78, So, 106, 

107, 108, 125, 126 

creed 104, 105 

electives in 11 

fear of 41, 4S 

for the infant 15- 17 

young child 18-21 

" child at school...., 29-36 

" " active youth 37-45 

" youth at college and brain-worker 45~5i 

" " traveller 52, 53, 54 

" " shopper 57,53 

business man 58 

in boarding-house 59 

for criminals and paupers 60-69 

for the hospital patient 70-83 

for middle life and old age S4, 89 

habits in 104 

hygienic 58 

indigestible 41, 77 

in relation to cost of living 59 62, 91, 98, ill, 134 

low estimation of . . 103 

on a journey 53, 54 

study of 13 

taste in 106 

Food -materials, analyses of 15, 16, 22, 27 

or composition of 64, 106 

therapeutic value of 82 

Food-supply, abundance of 1,2.4 

no substitute for 10 

inspection of 67, 68 

Hospital, food in 70-83 

Institution, food of 60, 67, 69, 70 

cost of food of 69 

inspection of...., 67 

Menu for child 26, 63, 64-67 

" " school 42 

" " businessman 56 

" no definite 92, 101 

" for 25 cents 115 



INDEX l6l 

FAGK 

Menu to show computation 146 

Milk as food . . , 15, 16, 17, 63 

Overeating, deaths from 85, 86 

Over-nutrition, dangers in 4, 5, 54, 86, 101 

Pauper, food for 60-69 

Potential citizen, food for 60-69 

School luncheon , 33j 34l 35, 36 

Sugar as food 18 

Under-nutrition 33, 49, 62 

University, duty of 49 

Vegetables, use of 40 

Vegetarian diet 86, 87 



1t»i\T7 11 lti#M 



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